To truly test my new, balanced power, I needed more than just lead and gunpowder. I needed someone with a "spark."
I found him in the Narrows—a low-level meta-human calling himself Voltage. He was a frantic, desperate man who could discharge thousands of volts of electricity. He was currently using his power to cook the locks off a bank vault, his hands glowing with a jagged blue light.
I stepped through the front doors, my shadow stretching long and thin across the marble floor.
"The vault is closed for the night," I said, my voice echoing.
Voltage spun around, his eyes wide and crackling with power. "The Shadow Butcher? You're supposed to be at the Docks!"
"I move fast," I replied, stepping forward.
The Shock to the System
Voltage didn't hesitate. He screamed and threw both hands forward. A massive arc of blue lightning slammed into my chest.
In the past, my heart would have stopped instantly. But with Defense 100, the electricity didn't cook my insides. It skittered across my skin like angry insects. It hurt—a jagged, biting agony—but I kept walking.
"More," I challenged.
Panicked, Voltage overcharged. He drew power from the building's main grid, his body becoming a blinding star of electrical energy. He lunged at me, grabbing my throat with both hands.
BZZZZZZT!
The smell of ozone and burning air filled the room. The sheer heat was enough to melt the floor beneath us. My nervous system finally buckled under the literal tons of pressure and heat. My vision went white as my brain fried.
[DEATH REGISTERED]
Cause: High-Voltage Electrocution (Meta-human Ability)
Gains: +2 Strength, +2 Agility, +2 Defense, +2 Spirit.
[NEW SKILL AWAKENED]
Skill: Gravity Defiance (Flight)
Description: By projecting your Spirit outward, you can negate gravity and propel yourself through the air.
Current Status:
Strength: 18
Agility: 18
Defense: 102
Spirit: 18
Respawning 10km away...
Taking to the Skies
I woke up on the steep incline of a bridge tower. Usually, I would have to find a way down or sink into the shadows. But this time, I felt a strange lightness in my marrow.
I looked at the city lights below. I thought about the feeling of rising, of pushing against the very air.
Slowly, my boots lifted off the metal.
I wasn't just falling upward; I was controlling it. I leaned forward, and I shot across the Gotham sky like a black streak. No more leaping from rooftops. No more climbing. I was a true predator of the night now.
I accelerated, the wind whipping past my face. Below me, I saw the bank where Voltage was likely still celebrating his "victory."
The Final Drop
I didn't use the shadows to return. I dropped from the clouds, screaming through the air like a meteor. I smashed through the roof of the bank, landing directly in front of Voltage. The crater I left shattered the floor for ten feet in every direction.
Voltage fell backward, his mouth agape. "How... how are you alive?"
"I'm not," I said, my feet hovering an inch off the ground as I drifted toward him. "I'm just very persistent."
I didn't give him a second chance. I grabbed him and flew straight up, punching through the ceiling and into the rainy night sky. I took him so high the air turned thin and cold.
"Let's see if you can fly, too," I whispered.
I let him go. I didn't watch him hit the ground. I had what I wanted. I hovered there, suspended in the air above Gotham, looking down at my kingdom. I could fly, I could command the shadows, and I could survive almost anything the city threw at me.
[CURRENT STATUS]
Strength: 18
Agility: 18
Defense: 102
Spirit: 18
Skills: Shadow Kingdom (10 Warriors), Flight (New).