"No... I saw the guy who did it, he came out of nowhere," the boy said as he shook his head firmly, "He was yelling something about mutants and cures, like we were the bad guys here."
Mark opened his mouth to ask more but before the words could form he felt goosebumps erupt across the back of his neck like a warning siren. He quickly spun and seized a large slab of fallen rubble nearby, heaving it upright and planting it like a shield in front of the three just as a massive explosion erupted from the darkness that would have obliterated the group behind him.
Mark peered past the edge of the improvised barrier through the clearing smoke and locked eyes on a man standing amid the flames. He was a tanned man with a thick beard across his face, though the edges of his beard look like they'd been singed; he was clad in what appeared to be a patched together army uniform stained with dust and blood from the explosion.
"You should've just died in the first blast—it would've made this easier for all of us," the man said with a thick accent, sneering as he rubbed his palms together with a malicious gleam in his eyes, "But no, you had to play hero in that stupid costume, dragging this out like some fool."
"Is this the one who caused the explosion—the guy you saw?" Mark asked the blonde boy, who nodded rapidly in confirmation as his face paled further,"Yeah, that's him, he's the one who set off the first bomb,"
Though before he could ask anything more the older man grabbed his arm. "We can't waste any more time, the experiment the Richard's boy was working on, it's gone critical... it could rip a hole straight through reality if we don't stop it, the energies are building too fast," the older man said as he propped himself up on one elbow with a grimace of pain.
"I can't see it anywhere, everything's such a mess, it could've been thrown anywhere," the girl said as she scanned the debris frantically, while she helped move the old man.
"It must've fallen into the basement during the blast—down through the floor cracks, that's the only place it could be," the older man said with a cough, wincing as he tried to sit up fully.
"Don't worry, we'll handle it right after I take care of this guy, stay behind the slab and keep your heads down," Mark said, as he stepped out from behind the shield with his cape billowing slightly in the breeze that had kicked up drafts, "Whatever your problem is, blowing up innocent people isn't the answer—surrender now before anyone else gets hurt."
"My name is Samir," the man who caused the explosion said as he straightened his posture, "and I'm here to protect my people from the monsters in this room; you and your kind who think you can play God with our futures."
"What are you talking about?" Mark asked with narrowed eyes under the mask, "This was a science convention, what monsters could possibly be here? These are just researchers trying to make the world better."
"I'm a mutant," Samir explained with a bitter laugh, "Your so called scientists here were developing multiple technologies that would fix congenital birth defects... but in doing so would completely wipe out my kind. You may call it progress, but it in truth genocide in the form of a lab coat, simply wiping us out because you fear what we can become."
"I won't let that happen," Samir said, his voice hardening as he continued, "Ever since I was born, I've known I was different from you humans—better, stronger, with powers that set me apart. I've lived among you my whole life, but I never felt like I belonged... until I found the brotherhood. Now I have a real home."
"In my old life I fought against the west, against the disease that is capitalism, but I realise now the only disease are human beings," he added before spitting on the ground. Samir raised his hands then with a malicious grin spreading across his face, his palms beginning to gleam with an unnatural sheen as sweat beaded and changed into volatile nitroglycerin that started to crackle.
Samir launched another explosion from his palms with a shout as the nitroglycerin ignited in a flash, hurling a wave of force directly at Mark, who clapped his hands together to create a concussive blast that canceled out the incoming detonation and scattered sparks across the floor.
Without missing a beat, he blitzed forward and grabbed Samir by the shirt collar, lifting him off the ground,"This isn't the way, Samir... I get it, mutants have it rough out there, and the world's scared of what it doesn't understand, but blowing up a convention and killing innocents isn't fighting for your people; it's just making enemies and turning the whole world against mutants, giving them every reason to hate you," he said firmly.
"You're a traitor to your own kind," Samir snarled as he spat on Mark's mask, his face contorted in rage, "You side with these weaklings? You think you can lecture me while wearing that ridiculous costume? Our power is a gift and you would use it as a slave to the humans."
Samir twisted in Mark's grip, his skin heated up and sweat poured out, transforming into nitroglycerin that caused his whole body to erupt in a massive explosion from every pore, throwing Mark back through the air while ripping off chunks of his unitard and cape, which tore away from his chest and thighs to expose toned skin glistening with sweat as well as his mask. Mark flipped mid-air, stopped his momentum, and floated there "Damn it," he muttered, as he glanced down at the shreds hanging off him.
"Humans have always hated us," Samir growled while staggering up, wiping blood from his lip before, "They can't accept we're the next step in evolution. The superior ones; Homo sapiens wiped out Neanderthals, so it's only fair we return the favor and rise from their ashes, stronger and purer, with no more hiding in their shadows!" He declared.
He then looked Mark straight in the eye, an almost manic gaze starring directly into his soul. "Kindness? Compassion?" He spat on the ground. "Those have no place here, those concepts don't exist in this world and they mean nothing to higher life forms."
"Superior? By murdering people who just want to help?" Mark shot back as he floated closer with clenched fists, "We are not beasts driven by appetite and fear; we are beings of choice, and choice is the only mark of progress that matters. Our history is not a ladder of the strong crushing the weak, it is a long, stubborn lesson that equality is indivisible, that the rights of one life are the concern of all lives, and that power has meaning only when it protects those who do not have it."
Samir just glared at him, but Mark didn't take any notice and continued speaking.
"You speak of compassion as if it were a defect, as if restraint were weakness, as if equality were a concession granted by the victorious. No. Equality is the starting point, the non-negotiable premise. If your vision demands that others kneel or die, your vision has already failed, because it cannot survive contact with people who have conscience.
We are capable of more than harm; we can reason, we can listen, we can build a future in which strength is measured by how little it is used. Every advance we honor was born from cooperation over conquest, and the simple recognition that the person before you is as real as you are. That is the evolution that matters.
Stand down Samir... please. Choose the harder path: justice without cruelty, power with accountability, purpose without blood. If you cannot, then understand this—your violence ends here, not out of hatred, but out of duty to those you would hurt."
With his face twisting further in rage, Samir rubbed his palms again to build up nitroglycerin and unleashed more explosions, the first detonating to Mark's left and blowing a hole in the wall as debris rained down, the second exploding right under Mark's feet to crack the floor and send shards flying up, and the third whistling straight at his chest. Mark dodged the first by flying right as the blast missed by inches, twisted left for the second while the heat singed his torn suit, and flew up for the third as the fireball passed under him, "You think this proves anything? All I see is a guy too addicted to his own power and too cowardly to try and find another way than senseless killing!"
Diving down fast, Mark aimed his shoulder at Samir's midsection, connecting solidly and sending Samir flying back to slam into the wall, which cracked on impact and gave way, causing him to crash through into the next room amid a cascade of debris where he coughed and pushed rubble off.
"That's enough," Mark said strongly as he floated through the hole and landed in front of Samir, lifting him up by the collar before adding, "I'm taking you in; you've hurt too many today... people who didn't deserve it, folks who don't even know what a mutant is, let alone want to hurt you, so this ends now."
"You... you don't know," Samir groaned while rubbing his palms weakly, "The brotherhood... they showed me the truth; humans are the disease, and we'll cure the world of them!" He groaned out. Rubbing harder as nitroglycerin sparked and an orb formed in his hand, he tried for another explosion, but Mark grabbed the hand quickly and squeezed, stopping the reaction and causing the blast to fizzle out in a puff of smoke.
"It's over," Mark said before tapping Samir lightly on the head, knocking him out as his eyes rolled back and he went limp.
Mark sighed as he lowered him to the ground and turned toward the exhibition room, he had to get that out experiment under control before something happened; only for a female voice to shout from behind him, "Watch out! Behind you!"
Spinning too late, Mark took a punch to the jaw that actually stung and sent him crashing through one wall amid exploding dust, then another where metal bent and broke, and a third before he skidded ten feet on the ground, tasting blood in his mouth.
Pushing up, he looked back to see a large man kneeling by Samir and checking his pulse, murmuring, "You okay, brother? Hang in there, we got you."
Mark wiped his mouth and zoomed back with the air whistling, drawing his fist for a strike, though his eyes widened when he saw someone step out "Who the hell—"
An incredibly fat blond man stepped in the path to block like a wall, and Mark's punch hit his chest with an echo that felt like concrete, pushing him back several feet as his feet skidded and left deep grooves in the floor. The blond man's eyes widened as he exclaimed, "What the fuck! Nobody moves me like that! How'd you do that?"
"Who are you?" Mark demanded while hovering ready with fists up.
"Get up and go, take Samir outta here!" the fat man barked at the large one, squaring his shoulders before adding, "I'll handle this clown in the ripped-up tights—go, now!"
"I don't think so." Mark moved fast by zooming around the fat man, aiming at the large man's head as he stood up, and connecting harder with a loud crack that dropped him, cratering the ground with a thud and leaving him down, out cold.
The fat man swung wide with his fist cutting the air, but Mark ducked under it as the swing missed by a large margin, then punched the gut solidly with no give as the fat man didn't budge.
"That all you got?" the fat man said with a grin.
Mark hit stronger in the same spot with force that thumped, but the fat man laughed, declaring, "I'm the Blob, kid, you can't hurt me; swing all day, and I'll just stand here and watch you tire out."
"Oh yeah?" Mark grinned before zooming left to punch the arm with a thud, right for the leg with another thud, and circling faster to land punches on the chest with thud thud, then the side with more thuds, dozens per second as each hit echoed like gunfire.
The Blob grunted while trying to grab Mark with hands that swiped empty air, "Stand still, you flying pest! I'll squash you!" He growled.
Mark kept going with a punch to the ribs, to the back, to the shoulder, building speed as the Blob swung again and missed, the punches piling on until the Blob started to sway. Mark finished with an uppercut at half power that hit under the chin with a crack, lifting the Blob off his feet by two feet before he crashed down hard, shaking the ground and going out cold.
Mark pushed him over with a boot, "Stay down," he commanded.
As he walked arches the giant of the man collapse on the ground he started to think about the brotherhood or whatever they had called them. 'A mutant terrorist group? That sounds dangerous,' he thought to himself. He'd need to get more information on them, how many there were, their powers. He had to stop more incidents like this from happening.
He was soon broken out of his thoughts when the girl and boy called for help with panic in their voices, "Hey—over here! It's getting worse! Hurry!" They shouted.
Mark zoomed over, "What's wrong—" The floor crumbled under them as cracks spread fast and blue energy shone through, pulsing brightly to light their faces while the light grew and the energy buzzed louder.
"Get out now," Mark instructed them, a stern expresssion on his face, "Can you help your father?" He asked the boy, to which the boy nodded resolutely by grabbing his arm for support, "Alright get going."
"I can shut it off if I have a minute to study it," the girl said with resolutely, "I know the basics, Reed showed me how it worked," she added.
"No Sue it's too dangerous," her father said while shaking his head, "We need to run now while we still can," he insisted.
"If we don't stop it Dad then who knows what might happen? It could level the block!" she argued.
(AN: So we have our mutants showing up and a special guest, the blob. Tbh I had trouble dealing with this guy cause I don't know enough about him to know where to scale him when it comes to durability. I could've researched it more but honestly I cba. Anyway hope you enjoy.)
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