Ch. 1

Mark Twain once said: "Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please." So then, before you start forming this image of me as some sort of tragic hero or victim of circumstance, you need to have the facts.

Here's a fact: 'Martin Flint is not an especially driven person.'

Anyone who knew me would agree that I was a lazy procrastinator who couldn't get anything worthwhile done, and while I wasn't particularly proud of this, I myself freely admitted it to anyone who prodded me on my goals in life. I wasn't particularly gifted in academic pursuits, barely skating on by as I was. Athleticism evaded me despite my few admittedly meagre attempts at this or that sport. Truthfully, there wasn't much I was passionate about, save one subject.

Video games.

A bit cliché, yes, as a large portion of teen boys my age shared the same predilection. But unlike most in my class, I wasn't interested in Multiplayer FPS games, or whatever new team-based games were being played by friend groups across the 11th grade. Above all else I enjoyed story-driven games, loaded with as much in-game lore as possible. I had made it my business to learn as much as I could about the universe behind each game I tore through and often complained about the fact that I only got to experience a sliver of each world.

As a consequence, this made me something of an achievement hunter as many games had hidden lore to be found and learned. I became someone who tries to fully complete or "100%" every game they took a liking to.

My current project was Dying Light, a gritty parkour zombie survival game, and I was down to one final achievement. It was called 'Fast as hell,' and I had to defeat a particular game mode in a fraction of the time it usually took. Already I had restarted twice this afternoon and I wasn't eager to do so again. So when my phone rang I answered as quick as I could and put it on speaker while adjusting my headphones to expose one ear, before refocusing on the undead enemy on the screen in time to dodge an attack and whack the rotting corpse in the head with my mace, stunning it.

"Yeah Dad?"

"…"

"Daaaaaaad?" I drew out the syllable trying to elicit a response. "Faaaatherrrr!"

The line was silent save for the faint sounds of what might have been a conversation in the background.

My dad often did this, calling me and then not looking at the phone once I had answered, assuming that I hadn't picked up yet, it was an irritating habit that I had brought up with him several times but was summarily ignored on.

Resigning myself to waiting for my father to realize he was on the line I whacked the last zombie again while evading its reach, chipping at its health.

Finally the opportunity to slip another combo in arose and I attacked the stunned creature with blow after blow of my mace only for the undead creature to finally slacken and rag-doll to the floor, beaten. I immediately glanced at the timer at the top which read 28:06. I had done it with nearly two minutes to spare.

A notification in the corner of the screen popped up showing that I received the achievement, another appeared a moment later reading "100% achievements gained."

I sat back in my desk chair, largely satisfied at my newest completed game, only to shift again in mild confusion as the screen went pitch black. Leaning down I made sure that the laptop was still plugged in and the power light was on.

I stared at the screen perplexed for a moment until words began appearing in a blocky white font, a green background fading in as the words wrote themselves across the screen.

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED "DYING LIGHT" AND EARNED A BOON!

MAKE YOUR SELECTION!

Below that there were three choices:

[Freerunning Proficiency-Passive Movement Augment

-Become a moderately skilled freerunner, able to scale just about any structure with great speed.]

[Nightrunner's Mettle-Passive Endurance Augment

-No longer tire when in the darkness, fatigue is severely lessened in stressful situations.]

[Virus Resistance-Passive Health Augment

-Become far more resistant to viruses, diseases, and pathogens of all types.]

I looked at the options in shock. Was this for real? I hadn't read anything that mentioned a post-game completion buff, plus it was so vague and open-ended.

'Viruses, diseases, and pathogens?' It's not like there was anything other than the zombie virus in-game. Honestly, I wasn't much of a nighttime player either because the large mutants that spawned in the dark creeped me out so [Nightrunner's Mettle] was out. [Freerunning Proficiency] sounded boring but 'scaling any structure with great speed' was at least interesting as the climbing could be a bit slow at times. I moved my mouse to try and select it but couldn't see the cursor. Weird. Must have been an oversight in the programming as the arrow keys didnt work either. Maybe they didn't think anyone would 100% the game? To be fair, some of the achievements I had to get were pretty ridiculous. Still, good thing my laptop was touchscreen. I tapped [Freerunning Proficiency].

[THE CHOICE IS MADE!]

Then it faded into the home screen. 'Hmm, maybe it applies on my next load? Or in New Game Plus?'

A masculine scream of pain from my cellphone pulled me from my pondering abruptly, and I grabbed the slim device. "Dad?! What's going on?"

There was the muffled sounds of a struggle before the man picked up the phone. "Marty listen to me," His father breathed heavily and unevenly between words, as if he was running "take everything out of the safe under my desk and get rid of it, tear it to shreds burn it, anything just make sure it's—"

There was the sound of something heavy being thrown around then my dad got back on the phone. "Christ, they got Dr. Sutten…Marty, are you there?"

There was a hard feeling in the back of my throat as I struggled to get words out. "Ya, yes I'm here. Dad, who—"

"The code to the safe is your mother's birthday, after you've got everything, you need to get out of the house, you just take your things and run and don't you fucking look back! You understand me? Do not ever go back there!"

I recoiled, if there was one thing I'd learned in the three years I had lived with him it was that Steven Flint never cursed lightly, and did not tolerate profanity without very good reason. Something I'd had to learn quickly. "Whats happening? Dad, are you going to be ok?"

"Martin just…" his voice was so tired, "listen to what I told you, and no matter what else, get those papers."

There was the deafening sound of what was unmistakably a gunshot, before the call ended.

I immediately tried to call back and was left staring at the phone screen with wide eyes in the dark. Call failed.

Dad's safe was full of documents in yellow manilla folders, and as I pulled all of it out in one thick chunk of paperwork, one folder's contents spilled on the floor.

The folder read: 'STAGG INDUSTRIES PHARMACEUTICALS: CLASSIFIED.' Piquing my curiosity…

It was fine to read them since I was destroying them soon, right?

'MES-182 Testing Log

Subject 1: Deceased

Note: decreasing dosage in subsequent attempts

Subject 2: Deceased

….

Subject 53: Deceased

…

Subject 112: Deceased

Note: no reactions subject persisted for 28 days, no sign of Agent M

…

Subject 137: Partial Emergence, deceased

Note: subject's skin has taken on a fractal appearance but appears to be otherwise healthy

Observation: subject has severely diminished appetite

Addendum: subject has starved to death'

What…what the hell was this? What was Dad doing in the labs at Stagg Industries that he needed me to dispose of it all? Some sort of drug testing?

Flipping to the next document it continued:

Deceased, Deceased, Partial, Partial, it carried on like that for a while, then finally at the very bottom of the pile he recognized his dad's slanted scrawl.

'Subject 219: Null effect

Note: no effect has been recorded as of yet

Observation: martin appears fine, no issue with appetite, hair loss, or T cell response, dosage may have been too low to trigger response.

addendum: forgive me lisa

addendum: eight months have passed without issue, tissue examination shows subject cells have fully accepted MES-182, still no sign of Agent M'

Staring at the crossed out sections my hand went to my right shoulder where I had a small lump of scarring, like the type you'd get from a large needle. I had an identical one on my left shoulder that I knew to be the remnants of a sickly childhood and many shots to help my immunity, but the one on the right shoulder still stung sometimes. 'Did he inject me with something? Something that had killed anyone else it had ever been administered to?'

The thought was haunting, but…Dad—Steven…he wouldn't do that, not after Mom had nearly overdosed and been declared unfit to be a guardian by the state.

'Unless he did,' a rebellious thought wormed its way into my head. 'After all, he always complained about how unmotivated I was, and the proof is right in front of me.'

DING DONG!

I flinched at the sound of the door bell and began to make my way to it mindlessly before realizing what I was doing. Then I fumbled with my phone as I opened the security app and logged in. Dad had insisted upon installing a doorbell camera after an apartment in the next complex over was robbed.

The camera feed buffered for a moment then revealed four men dressed in dark green military fatigues with rifles slung over their shoulders, one of them was holding a small battering ram.

One leaned down to look at the camera. Buzz cut, bad teeth, handlebar mustache.

"Anyone home? We aint here to hurt ya so long as ya co-op-er-ate?"

The last word was enunciated as if it was foreign to him. That wasn't the least bit reassuring.

Shit. I had to get rid of whatever Dad was working on, who knew what they'd do with…whatever the hell MES-182 was.

Thankfully, I had grabbed the bottle of butane stored under the kitchen sink and a lighter. I quickly started throwing every paper back into the safe—it was fireproof and I had no desire to burn down the condo and the entire complex. When I reached the folder that the paper I'd read slipped out of I paused for a moment, debating if I should destroy it. If this really did have something to do with me, then I deserved to know.

I folded and stuffed the folder into my hoodie pocket.

Then I shoved the safe over so the opening was facing up instead of to the side.

I squeezed out the contents of the bottle into the safe and lit a crumpled piece of paper on fire then dropped it in, backing away quickly as the flames consumed the documents.

The entire apartment shook a moment later.

THUD THUD THUNK-KRACK!

A quick glance at the feed showed they had just broken down my front door.

Racing back to my bedroom I shut and locked the door as quietly and quickly as I could before I threw everything I thought to take in the moment into my bag and opened the window.

Now, earlier when I had said that 'athleticism evaded me' that was admittedly a bit too kind. The truth of the matter is I was 5'8 (and a half!), maybe a 120 pounds soaking wet, and scrawny as all hell. I also had no clue how I was going to jump five stories down and survive…

"Hey do you fellas smell smoke? Ah goddammit—"

Well there was no time like the present to find out.

I stepped out onto the window sill, and tightened the straps on my bag, shutting the window behind me and leaning back against it—no sense in letting them know where I'd made my escape. From what little I recalled from TV and movies, you were supposed to drop feet first so that even if your legs broke, your head was safe, although five stories…

I couldn't climb down as the building was only a few years old and pretty well kept, so the bricks had no visible handholds.

The doorknob to my room rattled as they tried to get past the lock.

"Oi! This door is locked from the inside! Gotta be someone in there—"

Time was up. I have to jump. I have to jump.

"—eyy Freddie get the door smasher!"

I HAVE TO JUMP NOW!

My legs acted of their own accord whilst my mind was frozen in fear, springing me into a giant leap forward.

My hands flew out in front of me as I shut my eyes tightly against the winter wind, with my breath caught in my throat—IwasdeadsofuckingdeadholyshitIshouldajustletthemhavewhattheywanted—only to open my eyes again as I felt hard, cold metal in my grasp, the muscles in my hands and wrists stretching and burning with exertion as I held myself up.

I had somehow leapt the six meters between the apartment and the next building over, catching myself on the fire escape maybe a full story lower than I had been.

I had done a standing long jump not too long ago in gym class, and I had barely managed an average two meters. This much more was unreal.

Feeling my nonexistent arm strength waning, I kicked my feet twice like I was climbing out of a swimming pool and managed to get over the railing, collapsing bodily on the creaking metallic stairs as I caught my breath.

I got to my knees, not daring to stand fully as my legs felt like jello. Then, crawling forward, I leaned against a window, pressing my face against the cool glass, and attempted to calm my racing heart.

Maybe the adrenaline had kicked in and saved me? There was that old story about the lady who'd tapped into her hysterical strength and lifted a car to save her kid, maybe that's what I'd done? Found my hidden limit.

But unbidden my mind drifted back to the game I'd been playing and the unexpected 'boon' that was offered.

It…it couldn't be right?

A strange feeling surged through me, like an electric current on my spine.

Suddenly a bright green box popped up right before my eyeballs and I backed away from the window to get a better look.

The same style of white blocky text from before had spiraled into existence on the glass.

[Freerunning Proficiency-Passive Movement Augment

You are now capable of parkour and acrobatic maneuvers to a good level.]

How was this possible? This wasn't real right? It was some kinda joke, a prank or something.

But…I had made the jump. Hell! I made the jump with a heavy backpack weighing me down! I made the jump and it was most definitely impossible for me to have done it yesterday.

Holy freakin' crap! I have powers! The weird ass power to—what? Steal skills from video games I'd finished? This needed testing, vigorous testing. Wait, I have powers and I live in Gotham City, I was so utterly screwed.

Actually correction, I'm now homeless in Gotham with nothing but the backpack on my back stuffed with some clothes and my laptop. I'm beyond screwed, I am well and truly fucked. I slumped on the hard metallic stairs, back to the window and to my newfound ability.

My mind raced with half-formed thoughts in an unholy mosh of disarray and panic, before one thing was made evidently clear.

If the crazies in this city caught wind of someone like me who could continuously gain superpowers I'd be kidnapped off the street and either sold to the highest bidder or forced to work in a gang.

My Dad's apartment was in Gotham Heights, probably the least crime-ridden neighborhood in the city. I'd regularly seen the police that patrolled in the area drag homeless people off the streets when they couldn't provide proof of residence, no doubt to keep up the appearance of Gotham Heights' affluence in comparison to the remainder of the city.

If I admitted everything to the police, there was no way to know how it would go, or if I'd luck out and get one of the GCPD officers not on some gang payroll. I had to accept it; I was homeless now, and I couldn't stay here.

This solemn realization on my part was interrupted suddenly by a light flashing above my head. Not figuratively, literally. My bedroom lights had been switched on and with the curtains drawn back the space above me was suddenly brighter.

Shit! It was only a matter of time before they thought to look out the window where they'd find me to be a nice close target for the guns I'd seen them carrying.

Hefting my backpack up, I stood on legs that still felt like jello and began my descent on the fire escape.

Current Abilities:

Freerunning Proficiency- A [Passive Movement Augment] that grants Martin the ability to parkour pretty well.

AN: Trying my hand at a fanfiction for the first time in a while. I'm trying to avoid any ridiculously overpowered abilities from games, but feel free to suggest some cool things. General guidelines when I'm selecting games and abilities is that:

1. The ability choices can't be ridiculously overpowered

2. The game cannot be multiplayer, as Martin has to finish the entire game on his own.

3. No items. So for example he can't play God of War and have the Blades of Chaos or Leviathan Axe as choices. Only abilities and skills, whether they're magical, physical, mental, metahuman, etc.