2/18/2022

Gotham City

It is a dark and gloomy night here in Gotham City with a strong wind blowing through the city as I am standing on top of a building in the outfit that Nikki and Futaba created which gave me a heads-up display of local weather patterns as well as a clock feature as well as radio eavesdropping abilities so I can know the whereabouts of law enforcement and possible crimes.

"Those girls really went all out in this thing, and they still say that it is a prototype." I said to myself inside my helmet which is shaded so nobody can see my face as I am standing on the ledge of the tall building I am on. After experimenting with my abilities, I learned that I can also teleport while I'm in the air and I took full advantage of that in order to get up her as I look down at my target which is the Red Dragon Outpost that Nikki informed me about.

The place is a small drycleaner building but apparently it is just a front for the Red Dragon as the place has thugs coming and going. Each person wearing Red Dragon colors and tattoos from what I can see with the zoomed in view from the suit. However, things are starting to slow down, and the place is close to closing as there is only one person left in the place as he stops letting people into the place.

"Now's my chance." I said before I teleport down from the building and make my way behind the building while avoiding being seen thanks to my Blink ability. It didn't cost me too much energy and I still have plenty left in order to get in and get out as I teleport into the building. Now in order to teleport like this I need to see where I want to go and thanks to a low window I saw my way in was a back room of some kind and I managed to make it in without alerting anyone as I reach into my Pocket space and take out my stun gun and holding it in my hand and charge it so it can be ready for action.

"Damn that Daegon. Leaving me here when I should be out patrolling." The guy said in an annoyed voice that wasn't so much angry but more like he was annoyed at being bored and I didn't waste the chance as he turned the corner to enter the backroom I am in as I blast him with the volts from my stun gun and badly shock him as he fell to the ground unconscious.

"Damn. A full charged blast from this thing really pacts a punch." I said before I stashed the stun gun into my Pocket and quickly search the guy as he is Asian with a built figure and messy black hair and is wearing dark clothes under a trench coat. Oddly enough he seems familiar, but I can't place it at the moment as I find some keys in his pocket and make my way around this place before finding a hidden room that I unlocked as I saw a stash of guns, drugs, money and all sorts of other valuable items and my target which happens to be a total of four charms on a table.

Now the moment I stash away the charms my vision starts changing into a sea of blues and grey as the Outsider suddenly appears before me as the world around me changed from a laundry place to the Void.

"It seems that you are progressing nicely in this new world but be warned that forces beyond your control will try to prevent your growth. Beings like Daegon who you just robbed are threats to be reckoned with since they too have been given powers from the gods." Outsider said calmly and with clear amusement in his voice.

"I could have figured that out on my own. So, why did you bring me here?" I asked him bluntly.

"I wanted to tell you that you should try to locate one of my shrines. They can enhance the abilities you have as well as grant you new avenues of ability progression as well as control and the same applies to my Runes which in simple terms can upgrade any ability of yours despite the number of charms that a skill needs to improve." The Outsider explained to me with a smile. "I want you to grow and bring me some more enjoyment Andrew. I want you to change this world."

Those were the last words he spoke before he vanished and the world around me returned to normal as I also noticed a new item behind the charms I grabbed as this item looked like a fist sized artifact made of bones in some strange and almost native American themed charm and my gut told me that this is in fact a Rune so I quickly grabbed it as well as some drug money before looking around and realizing that I can grab these intimidating looking guns and ammo since I have a limited amount of storage space left but I have room for something and that something is a black 9mm pistol as well as a good amount of ammo before I make my way out of the building and soon make my way to star labs.

As soon as I reached Star Labs, I saw two things. The first is that Futaba is fast asleep at a computer while the second was that Nikki was waiting for me to return as I told her about everything that happened when I hit the outpost as I also told her about what the Outsider has told me.

"It's been speculated that the leader of the Red Dragon is a Metahuman but you're telling me that he was given power from a god that wasn't the Outsider which also means that other gods exist in this world." Nikki said with a look of mild shock.

"Yeah. Also, I don't plan on fighting Daegon or anyone anytime soon since I still need to build up power. Also, can I have that charm you promised now?" I asked her as she nodded her head and drove into one of the lab desks and took out a charm before I placed it on a table along with the other four charms plus the rune I collected!

You have collected 5 Charms and 1 Rune!

I chose to ignore the message above my hand as I took a deep breath and thought about what abilities I need to improve and right now I think it would be best for me to save the rune for later use.

Endurance is now Rank 2

Endurance-Rank 2: You have the Endurance of a Olympic athlete and as a result you have gained a considerate amount of more stamina and your muscles have gotten tougher to lessen the damage you take!

You have 4 Charms and 1 Rune!

New Power Available!

Vitality-Rank 1: You have a healthy body as your life span has increased by 10 years and you now have a lot more vitality compared to a normal person!

Vitality is now Rank 2!

Vitality-Rank 2: You have a healthy body as your life span has increased by 25 years and know you have considerably more vitality compared to a normal person!

You have 2 Charms and 1 Rune!

The skill [Blink] can be upgraded in two different ways. You can choose to upgrade the [Distance] or the [Cooldown] but each one will cost 2 Charms!

The skill Blink is now Rank 3!

Blink-Rank 3: Your can harness the energy of the Void to achieve short, ranged teleportation between modest distances with a modest cooldown period. [Next upgrade requires 4 Charms]

"Did you just upgrade your abilities?" Nikki asked as she was seated at a nearby computer near Futaba and was typing away rather quickly.

"Yeah. Why do you ask?" I asked her.

"It seems that when you upgrade your abilities. The Ether in your body surges and becomes stronger. This might sound intrusive, but I might need a blood sample in order to run some more tests since it seems that Ether is starting to build up within your body." Nikki said in a serious tone of voice.

"Is that bad?" I asked her since I didn't feel bad or anything like that.

"Ether energy is unstable at best and unpredictably dangerous at worst and I need to understand how your body is producing and adapting to in order to fully understand how I can best help you enhance your abilities. Come with me to the infirmary." Nikki said as I followed her into the extremely clean infirmary they had in this place.

The florescent lights were bright, and the entire place smelled like rubbing alcohol, which at least means that they kept the place clean and sterile.

"Did this place have a nurse or something?" I asked as I looked around the medical lab.

"Remember when I said I have a job from home?" Nikki asked out of nowhere. "Well, I used to be a nurse before I took this job as Futaba's assistant and official manager of this Star Labs building in Gotham. The paperwork can be done online at home, but I still come here and make sure everything is sterile and up to date incase we finally open this place back up again." Nikki explained.

"That still doesn't explain why this place needs such a big infirmary." I told her as she put on some sterile gloves and took out some medical supplies as I stripped out of my suit.

"Star Labs was a testing site for human trials based on medications and what not. Or at least that is what I was told, and they used this facility for both research and to monitor their patients. Now give me your arm." Nikki said before I extended my right arm as she cleaned it with a cotton ball dabbed with alcohol before she grabbed a needle and put it in my arm as she drew some blood.

My blood looks normal honestly and it doesn't seem to have changed or anything but then again, I'm no doctor so I guess I can't really tell one way or another.

"I'll run some test and get back to you with the results." Nikki said as I took out my normal clothes from my Pocket space and got dressed before I left Star Labs and headed back to the E.S.F building to get some much-needed sleep.

2/20/2022

Gotham City/E.S.F Building

It was early in the morning when I woke up and was taken aside by Johnny who brought me to the meeting room where I saw Sonya, Jin, Takeda, Cassie and Jacqui who was all healed up apparently and decked out in her basic military fatigues with her arm blasters on her forearms.

"Alright so we are all gathered together. So, what's this about general?" Jin asked.

"This is about a new change coming to the E.S.F and how it will impact us going forward. Now the E.S.F is based around the defense of earth from all manner of threats and has had a small business rivalry with the Argus organization, but it seems that the rivalry is over because the E.S.F is now being merged with Argus and all our assets will be theirs." Sonya said bluntly as that shocked everyone including me.

"Can they actually do that?" Cassie asked with clear confusion as Sonya nodded her head.

"They can and they have. Now we will still be operating in Gotham and this task force will still be operating within it. Nobody is going anywhere and that brings me to the second reason why I called you all here. As of now, Andrew will be joining your group as the five of you will now be the task force known as 'Titans' and be given official assignments from Argus." Sonya explained as the room was filled with mixed reactions.

"Damn. Didn't think the Special Forces could be bought out like this." Johnny said as he tried to lighten the mood a bit.

"Stuff like this happens all the time so its not too surprising." I said before eyes fell on me. "What?"

"You're taking this rather well. Suddenly getting thrown into a team without warning and all that." Takeda said as I shrugged.

"I figured something like this might happen eventually. Besides being on a task force sounds pretty cool." I told him back.

"I'm glad you feel that way because today you are going to be given your first assignment on this team." Sonya said as everyone looked towards her. "Your assignment is going to be training all of you to work together as a team in the newly designed training room. Johnny can take you there after all of you have suited up and armed yourselves accordingly."

After Sonya spoke, we were dismissed and told to get ready and sure enough in the boys barracks I saw Takeda and Jin ready up their equipment while I access my Pocket space and took out my suit. My little laundry heist wasn't on the news or anything, so they won't think that I'm a criminal or anything by wearing this.

"What the hell is that?" Jin asked as he looked at me after I finished putting on my suit.

"My suit. A friend made it for me, and its pretty high tech and I want to test it out a bit." I told him as he seemed weirded out by it but didn't put up a fuss about it or anything as we left and rejoined Johhny and the girls as Cassie was the only one who changed as she is now wearing her black military jumpsuit uniform from MKX with pistols holstered on the left and right side of her hips while also sporting her military looking drone that was flying next to her head and is shaped almost like a flying saucer.

"You're taking that thing with you?" Johnny asked as he looked at the drone.

"It's not a thing dad. Her name is birdie and yes, I'm taking my kick ass drone." Cassie responded as the man shrugged.

"Alright but don't complain if Birdie gets smashed. Now come on. You kids are going to love the danger room." Johnny said with a smile, and it seemed that Cassie, Jacqui and I were the ones who got the reference.

"You named it after the X-mens danger room in the comics?" I asked him as he laughed.

"Got it in one kid." Johnny said before we made our way into a restricted building that apparently we would only have access to as we are given keycards that we put away for later or at least they did while I stuffed mine into my dimensional space as we entered the building and saw a large corridor of computers and hallways as we are guided down a long hall and stand in front of two military issue doors with the E.S.F logo on them as Johnny walked into another room and told us to wait for a moment before we heard him on the intercom of this place.

"Alright boys and girls. This little room is going to test the limits of your sanity and muscles, so I hope your ready to see our one and only Danger Room." Johnny said over the intercom before the doors in front of us opened as we walked through and saw a massive football court sized area as the floors and walls where steel or maybe something stronger as they had lights of stark blue colors and the logos of the E.S.F were all over the place before the world around us had suddenly changed into a desolate wasteland.

"What the fuck?" Cassie asked in pure confusion.

"What sorcery is this?" Jin asked as he readied his bow.

"This is the combination of advanced Metahuman science and magic as this room can create artificial scenarios and situations that feel like the real deal and now the team goal is to work together and defeat your enemy. By the way the safety gloves are off so try not to get beat up too badly." Johnny said over the intercom again.

"Damn it dad!" Cassie shouted as I looked around and saw that even my helmets computer display was tricked as it detected the weather of this hologram and what not as I also looked on at this place as the ground seemed like reddish clay with lots of rocks and buildings in the distance as well as what looks like a bunch of angry Tarkatan grunts heading towards us.

"Wait what?" I asked out loud as the group got closer with their blade like arms as Jin, Jacqui and Cassie started firing their weapons at them.

"We need to regroup. Now!" Cassie said as our group made a hasty retreat towards what seemed like some kind of village as we managed to separate and hide behind a few buildings as the horde started to look for us as we kept on moving. I was with Cassie while Jacqui was with Takeda as Jin decided to try and do his own thing.

"Damn." Cassie cursed as I reached into my Pocket and took out my pistol and loaded it. "Actual holograms of Tarkatan monsters trying to kill us."

"This isn't ideal, but we can make it out of this." I told her as she looked back at me as we hid behind a thick wall.

"If you have a plan, I'm all ears." Cassie replied and that shut me down quickly since I didn't have a plan at all. If this was an anime or a comic or something I would have made a flawless and unconventional plan that would win this training exercise but right now I'm drawn a blank.

"I don't have a plan but that's not my job anyway. You're the leader of the team so you're the one who needs to come up with something." I told her back before we heard what sounded like screams and as Cassie and I looked around the corner we saw Jin firing explosive arrows from his bow and took out a few dozen Tarkatans.

"Damn Jin. Alright just follow my lead." Cassie ordered to me as she and I jumped into battle in what looked like a pincer strike as Jin attacked from in front while Cassie and I shot from behind the crowd which divided their attention as my shots missed a lot since I'm not trained with a gun in a stressful situation but I quickly put my gun away when a Tarkatan got close as I avoided his strikes with his arm blades and delivered some strong punches to his face and body before he fell onto the ground as I did the same with a few other Tarkatan's who tried to jump me but luckily I was saved when Jacqui came out of hiding and shot them with her wrist mounted weapons and Takeda wasn't far behind as he used his whip blades to slash at the Tarkatan's and killed them in a show of holographic blood and soon enough the small horde was no more.

"Jin what in the living fuck were you thinking?" Cassie asked as she practically screamed at Jin who gave her a glance.

"They were going to spot me where I was hiding so I attacked preemptively." Jin said back as he ignored Cassie's glare with practiced ease. "Besides the enemy is dead now so we can leave." Jin said as he expected this training simulation to end immediately but it did not.

"I don't think it's going to be that easy. Johnny made it sound like there was one enemy specifically that we had to defeat. So, I think we should at least start looking around since this place obviously got larger than how it first appeared." I said as we could look in various directions and see objects in the distance that would be much farther away than the room would originally suggest.

"Andrew's right. This place feels…Bigger somehow and our real target must be hiding somewhere or something." Takeda said as Jin sighed in response.

"Fine. Let's search for this mysterious enemy." Jin said before Cassie actually came up with a plan as she would use Birdie and I to scout areas ahead of us for enemies as I told her about my Blink ability and she decided to put it to good use as the drone and I prevented our team from running into anymore Tarkatan war parties before we came up to a massive temple where we saw the leader of the Tarkatan's known as Baraka dressed in his MK 11 basic outfit and alongside him is Mileena, Reptile and…Fucking Motaro.

"We are so fucked." I said to myself as I stood at the top of a large rock formation and used the zoom in feature of my helmet to see the four enemies.

"What are you seeing Andrew?" Cassie asked via the communicator in her Birdie drone that flew up next to me before I told them about the four enemies we'd have to defeat. "Alright. Come back down to us and we'll come up with a plan."

Just like that I teleported off the rock formation and teleported back to the group as they were hidden in some brush out of view.

"So, what plans have you come up with?" I asked her before she explained exactly what we'll be doing. Now the temple itself seems to be unguarded and due to the nature of the villains our leader doesn't want to take any chances since she apparently read the files on all four of them. So, after a while we split up. Takeda, Jin and myself are acting as the vanguard while Cassie and Jacqui provide support and from the rear which basically meant that they would be lobbing grenades near the enemies to harm, distract and blind them as they threw a combination of flash bangs and grenades at the group which quickly caught them off guard and sent Baraka, Reptile and Mileena reeling while Motaro was staggered a bit but recovered quickly as I teleported in front of him with Jin and Takeda at my sides as I held onto their shoulders and used Blink and noticed that I can teleport other people instead of just myself.

"Foolish mortals. You'd dare to attack the mighty Motaro!" Motaro shouted as I noticed that he is in his minotaur form instead of the impossible to motion capture centaur form. He stands at ten feet tall with a horned head as he is basically a wall of muscle with a metallic looking tail and black furred legs and hooves instead of feet as he also seems to be wearing some kind of battle armor over his chest and arms with a loin cloth covering his lower body.

Also, this confuses me since Motaro conically died in MK 9 but right now I don't have time to question it.

"So, who wants to deal with him first?" I asked jokingly as Motaro neared us.

"You got us this far rookie. So, why don't you show us what you can do in a fight?" Jin asked as I looked at him before stepping up to fight the beast.

"Time to kick some minotaur ass." I said as Motaro charged at me as I ducked under one of his surprisingly fast punches before I hit him with an uppercut as hard as I could, and it barely seemed to phase him as he quickly hit me with a spartan kick with his right hoof and sent me flying past Takeda and Jin as I landed hard on the ground. My enhanced body softened the otherwise lethal blow, but it doesn't mean that it didn't hurt and now I am pretty sure something might have just snapped as I struggled to get back up.

Luckily, I saw that Jin and Takeda had stepped in when I went flying and started fighting the monster in my place as I slowly rose to my feet.

"Motaro has a bad habit of playing with his victims. But you'll find that I'm not as playful." A new voice said as I got ready to fight and I saw Baraka and Reptile walking up to me as Baraka charged at me with his blade like arms as I dodged and evaded the swipes as best I could but I still got sliced here and there which put some slash mark sized holes in the suit before I went on the attack and hit Baraka with several strikes of my own as hard as I could and with my fighting skills I knew how to hit effectively and where to strike as I ducked under another one of his strikes and clocked Baraka's face with a side kick that sent him onto the ground as I heard a wet sounding snap before he even hit the dirt.

Before I could do anything, else Reptile attacked me with some fast moving goo ball he created from his hands as I used Blink to appear behind him and avoid the attack as I kicked his knee out with my foot with a powerful kick from behind which forced him down onto the ground in agony since his knee cap was either heavily fractured or broken but I didn't care either way. What I cared about was ducking under a spray of acid that reptile spat out of his mouth as I ducked under the spray and stepped away a bit as I saw Reptile slowly get back up along with Baraka who seemed to have regain his senses as he held his jaw with his right hand while Reptile stood as if his leg wasn't just rendered useless.

"Damn human. Have a few tricks up your sleeve but so do we." Reptile said as he went invisible, as Baraka was about to charge at me again before he was suddenly shot in the head as I looked over my shoulder and saw Cassie walking up towards me. But, that moment of distraction was my downfall as my legs got swepted from under me and I fell to the ground before quickly rolling on the ground as I avoided getting stomped on by the heavy foot that just hit the ground.

"Being invisible is cheating." I quickly said as I tried listening for footsteps or something but Reptile was deadly quiet and I was taken off guard once again as I saw a greenish yellow ball suddenly appear in front of me and this time I didn't dodge in time as it hit me with some hard concussive force while it somehow magically lifted me into the air before Reptile reappeared above me in the air as he landed on me with his knees in my gut as gravity helped him send me onto the ground painfully before Reptile started pummeling my helmet and made several cracks in it before I heard another shot as Reptile was shot in the head as well by Cassie who quickly came to my side and helped me up.

"Sorry you took a few hits, but I didn't want to risk shooting you." Cassie said as I saw Takeda, Jin and Jacqui kill Motaro and Mileena as the world around us soon returned to normal as we found ourselves back in the training room.

"Well, that wasn't exactly a passing grade, but it could have been a lot worse." Johnny said as he came into the training room from the only entrance as it was now wide open, and he let us out and told us we were dismissed for the day and with that being told to us I got back into my military fatigues and headed over to Star Labs where I brought the suit to Nikki who was understandably pretty pissed at how I damaged the suit.

"Fuck!" Nikki cursed loudly as she took out some tools and went to work fixing it. "Putting you through some next level training at the expense of the suit Futaba and I made. Granted it is a prototype, but it still shouldn't have suffered this much damage."

"Sorry Nikki. How long do you think it will take to fix up the suit?" I asked her as she took a heavy breath.

"I have more than enough supplies here to fix the suit, so it won't take too long. Give me a few hours and it will be fine, but you seriously need to be more careful with this thing. It isn't meant to handle a shit load of battle damage. It's meant to keep you safe from a stray knife or bullet." Nikki explained as I made a mental note that we will seriously need to make some hardcore upgrades to the suit later on.

"Well did you finish testing my blood yet?" I asked her as she once again took a break from repairing the suit.

"Yes, but I can tell you the results later. I'll call you when the suit is repaired." Nikki said as I decided to leave and let her cool off since she was clearly made at how I brought back the suit and honestly, I can't blame her.

"I need to find more Charms and Runes so I can make some more upgrades to my abilities, and I also need to look into finding a shrine to the Outsider." I whispered to myself as I walked the Gotham streets while trying to think about what my next move could possibly be.

2/23/2022

Gotham City/Gotham Branch of Argus Building

"So, this is team building?" I asked as the Titans team was currently located at the former E.S.F building that we called home as the logos were replaced with Argus logos and what not as new systems of security had been put in place as we are all outside in the main yard looking on at the construction that was still going on but luckily the core buildings were left alone.

"It's a lame excuse for it but yes. Where watching Argus step into our home and take it over." Cassie said with a scowl.

"How are the ribs holding up?" Jacqui asked me as I had gotten bandaged up around my stomach and chest due to the injuries, I received from the training room.

"I'll live. Still hurts like a bitch though." I told her as I seemed to be the only one still nursing their wounds as the others got banged up but not as badly as me which means I either lack power and experience or they are way more dangerous than I gave them credit for.

"That will teach you to avoid a kick from a Centaurian in the future." Jin said with a cocky smile as I rolled my eyes. The dude might be pretty hot but he's kind of a dick.

"Yeah. Next time I'll teleport behind you for safety." I said back with my own smirk.

"At ease ladies. You're both equally pretty now let's leave. I actually did come up with something for team building that we can do." Cassie said as our group headed towards the training area where we basically had a little competition to see who could do the best in various exercises and despite my enhanced abilities, I came up short due to my internal injuries.

What I wouldn't give for a fallout stimpak right now.

"Not bad." A voice said as we all turned around and saw none other than Jax's coming up to us in his military outfit with metal arms to boot.

"Dad what are you doing here?" Jacqui asked as she was the first to walk up to him.

"I'm here working for Argus. They've got some new rookies that could use some tough love from an old vet." Jax said back before he looked over the rest of the team. "It seems I've walked into some old school team building."

"How did you know that?" Cassie asked as Jax chuckled.

"Cassie your mom and I did the same thing when we first enlisted. During downtime we would always train and memorize battle plans." Jax said back. "So, since you're all doing some team building, I don't see why I can't practice my old teaching techniques to all of you." Jax said and sure enough Jax took over and our 'Team Building' turned into a hardcore training day of the body and the mind.

I didn't mind though since it lets me test out my limits and also polish up on my fighting skills since I got paired up with Takeda for some light sparing and I quickly realized that fighting a ninja is an extremely bad idea since he had me on my ass quickly enough.

END!

A/N: Okay more plot has been written and I am taking the training room from MKX and making it hardcore training since I feel like it has some unused potential for greatness. Anyway, please fav, follow and review because it helps.