Chapter 12: Middle School and Enigma!
Going into the gates, I could feel all eyes on me. Even with the glasses giving me a nerdy look, my silver-black hair stood out. Coupled with my height and likeable face, it was bound to happen.
'Show-off', Oracle huffed.
'Oh shut it', I mentally rolled my eyes. Poker face helped not show it on my face as I made my way to the principle office. Raven Darkholme was disguised as a 40- year old kind looking lady, but I knew under it was a crazy skilled assassin who could give Black widow run for her money.
Our interaction wasn't much special, so I just took my timetable and left.
First was homeroom where I entered to introduce myself. "Hello everyone, I am Alex Night, Hope we get along." I noticed Wanda, Jean and Anna in the class. What I was surprised to see was the redhead beside spider-boy. Guess him and MJ are childhood friends.
" Thankyou Mr. Night, please take the empty seat beside Mr. Parker." It was the only seat so I made my way there and sat down.
"Um, nice to meet you, um... Oh! I am Peter Parker by the way. This is my friend Mary Jane Wattson." Peter introduced himself a bit awkwardly.
"Nice to meet you Alex. Just call me MJ. All my friends call me that.", she said.
"Nice to meet you too, Peter and MJ, hope we get along." I said and we attended classes. All my classes were nearly the same.
At lunch I finally sat beside them, when I felt someone trying to read my mind. It was Jean with her friends, all looking at me. She was just reading surface thought's so I let her see some of the fake one's and let her be. Apparently Kitty forced her to learn more about me even with Laura and Wanda's warning. Anna just didn't care.
" I heard from Harry you were smart but talking to you feels you are at the level of Stark or Reed.", I told Peter.
" You know Harry?", they both asked the same time.
"Yup, we are childhood friends"
After finding a common ground to speak on, we got along well. He introduced me to two new friends, Ned , and to my surprise, Miles Morales. Spiders together strong??
The whole day went well. We exchanged numbers and decided to go out sometime.
This time going toward the car, I saw Jean and her group looking at me, so I just looked at them and gave a kind smile. All of them became completely red. The other boys were giving me jealous looks except Pietro, who was seeing me with some caution.
But those hostility suddenly disappeared when they saw me enter the car. Guess they are not gonna fight some rich guy.
The rest of the day went chatting with others on phone and finishing whatever homework at the same time. Though it was easy and I had superspeed, still, who gives homework on the first day?
Anyway, night came and I was ready for my first hunt. We modified the suit to have two modes. Normal and Armored. We decided this because we could be attracting SHIELD and Hydra eyes a bit too soon with a high tech suit. There was no way, they were gonna let me slide. Not that they could catch me anyway, but I rather not accelerate Hydra's plans.
In normal mode, the suit looked the same as Joker from Persona 5 , but with a hood attached. The mask was a grey version oh Hei's mask from Darker than Black, but with no smile. It looked ordinary on outside aside from the glowing blue eyes and glowing red scar over the right eye, the glow was purely aesthetic, but looked hella menacing at night. Blue eyes with a scar looking through the darkness. I can adjust the glow to turn off during infiltration, it easily attracts attention. All the upgrades made it the perfect suit I could ask for. The most enchanting thing were my pure silver hair I kept out. I had no problem on someone getting it as they were under a spell so they will never fall.
" Ready for your debut?" Oracle asked.
" I have been ready for this all my life Watchtower, let's do this." I said enhancing my senses to pick up any sounds, and instantly got one one. I went towards it swinging with my grappling hook. It looked the same from P5 Royal. I reached there to see 4 men surrounding a girl with shitty smiles.
I will tell you guys one thing. I was not a hero doing this for a mission to save people as a responsibility. The main motivation was just to beat ass and get famous. But seeing this ignited a flame in my heart. Anger. To see this scums doing this. Even the system added righteous aura to my original skill.
*3rd person*
In the alley, you can see a scared girl crying with four armed men surrounding her. Seeing their smiles, she cried for help but no one came. Even while begging, they still came closer. She lost all hope but she suddenly heard a eerie voice the startled her and left her with a feeling of fear and... relief?
"LEAVE. HER. ALONE.", all those goons were on alert as well and searched for the voice but found no one. Yet their anxiety was growing stronger and they were sweating while looking around. They all felt a gaze form above and looked up to just freeze on the spot. There were two glowing eyes, one of them had a red scar, and they felt like they were seeing through their soul. Even the girl was a bit scared, yet she felt safe. It was a very weird feeling.
The leader somehow managed the courage to yell," Why don't ya come down so we can teach you a lesson or two?*BAM*" He had just finished speaking, but received with a kick to the fact from the guy who had jumped down. The other's got angry and rushed at him with knives, and the lady screamed, but her expression changed completely a second after.. The guy moved out of the way elegantly as if dancing but beat those thugs with brutality as well. She heard a bone or two breaking as well. Finished when them, he looked towards her and she got completely alert. She noticed his silver hair too now that he was closer. They were looking a bit glowing as well. She wasn't sure.
" Are you hurt?" he asked to which she denied shaking her head . He nodded and said," Then please call the Police to turn them in, and next time , don't go into a dark alley in the middle of the night."
He turned around and fired a wire to the roof." She snapped out of her daze and asked," Wait, who are you?". After a few seconds of silence he turned and replied" Enigma." and he lifted off and disappeared into the darkness.
After a few minutes, Police could be seen making their way here and Enigma decided to leave form the roof. He still had his senses on high alert.
"You alright Enigma, You barely controlled your anger down there. If it wasn't for your perfection in controlling strength, they might have been dead". Oracle asked in a serious tone.
"I'm fine. I was just too caught up in perfecting my supposed act that I forgot the kind of scums that live among us. I decided to ignore all this to become stronger, and look like a hero, but I never thought abut saving someone. Just fighting. Treating everything like some sort of game? But not anymore. You got anything for me?"
If one could see his eyes, he could see his will burning with passion yet with a tint of bloodthirst. Now, he was really out on a hunt. Even the likes of Kingpin and Madam Gao felt a chill down their spine, but after a while decided to ignore it. Yet, their heart didn't feel at ease at all.
That night he saved many people getting robbed to murdered, stopped a drug trafficking, in which case he shot a few guns towards the floor to let the people in neighborhood call the police. He even left a pen-drive with proof of their previous crimes with a note saying' Gift- from Enigma."
That night was the birth of the people's faith and the criminal's fear. A pair of glowing eyes with a scar staring down at them haunting them in their nightmares. The symbol of peace and fear, "Enigma".
( Batman's memory(98%))
* pov end*
The next day I woke up with a refreshed mind, then thought about my actions from last night. I didn't regret what I did. Not one bit. It was a bit brutal, but they deserved it. I finished my chores and made my way to school. Alfred was a bit worried because of my silence after my return, but let me solve my feelings myself. I entered school and found myself in a nostalgic atmosphere. Though I don't remember most of my past life, the feeling of having fun with friends still remains. It unknowingly put a smile on my face as I reached class.
There was still time for the teacher to come, but to my surprise, everybody was talking about my work last night. How fast does the news travel?
Peter was talking in the largest group... fanboying over Enigma? His excitement looked about to burst out of him.
" Hey Alex, finished homework?" MJ asked as I sat.
"Yeah, it was simple. What's up with Peter though? Didn't take him as the jumpy type." That received a giggle form MJ, and the attention of the three X-girls I noticed were sitting behind me.
"You didn't hear about last night?" she asked surprised. "No, just watched a movie before sleeping, so no news. What happened?" I lied smoothly. Lying perk was really scary.
"Apparently there is a new vigilante in town that calls himself Enigma. Took down many robber's and even stopped a case of drug trafficking. They over there are speculating if he's a mutant, and if so, what are his powers. You should check the news yourself." MJ suggested.
I immediately took out my phone and searched. There was no photo of me, but of the note I left on the pen-drive. Many don't believe I exist because the police didn't give any statement. The news got these photo's under the table it seems. Those who believed were divided into Enthusiasts and hater's. The hater's said I was a menace taking justice into my own hands, and the fact that I was one of the rumored mutants.(Apocalypse hasn't woke up right now) They also criticized me brutally beating some up. While the other's said I was an accident or experiment like Captain America or the F4. There were no solid proof on me having powers. They gave a brief description of my costume, according to the criminals I had beaten or the people saved. There was also fanart with some looking quite like mine. Seriously, when did they even get the time to make these? It's only been about 9 hours.
My classmates were exited on knowing a vigilante was in their town. The police already had a search warrant issued according to Oracle.
'So how's it gonna be from now on? There are searching for pure silver haired teens, but also added it could be a wig in their files. Age speculated around 18-22.' Oracle asked.
'I'm gonna patrol seriously, but I can have some fun on the side.' I crackled on the inside making plans of putting a show for police and criminals, but poker face saved me from grinning like an idiot in class. All hail poker face-sensei!!'
After the class ended ,we sat in the cafeteria in the corner but to my surprise some of them came to sit with us. It were actually the X-kids. Yeah, I like that name. They were Scott(Cyclops), Kurt(Nightcrawler), Pietro, Jean, Wanda, Kitty, Anna and Laura.
"Mind if we sit here as well?" asked Scott to us. Seeing Peter too startled to answer, MJ took the lead and said yes. After sitting together, we introduced ourselves. Anna and Laura just said names giving us a 'Don't talk to us vibe'. I was last and said "My name's Alex Night. Nice to meet you all." I said with my signature smile , putting a blush on girls while the guys relaxed seeing me easy to get along with.
I noticed the brotherhood kids seeing us, so Magneto will know and try to investigate me as well. Yea, good luck with that. I have an nearby apartment for me to clear off any wanna-be stalkers without raising suspicion.
We talked about hobbies and stuff, when after some time Kitty excitedly asked, "What do you think of the rumored Vigilante?" Why does it always come back to this?
'Well, at least you are getting famous as you wanted' Oracle snarked.
'*sigh*Please don't bring that up.', I replied still depressed at my past nature of avoiding to help people and being self-centered.
Peter's eyes almost looked twinkling and said" Yeah, he's so cool right. He's helping people but at the same time he does it looking cool. Just read his outfit's description. No one knows if he is a mutant or not either, and if he is, what are his powers? His name' Enigma' really suits his mysterious vibe." They were all silent seeing the silent kid suddenly jumping with excitement, like he found a new toy, while MJ just gave a tired sigh, with Miles and Ned giving a conflicted smile. I decided to do something interesting here. This may come to bite me later but there is a good chance it will ease my plans for the future.
So I said," That's all good but the term mutants just sounds... wrong." I said with a thoughtful expression. The X-kids became slightly on guard while Pietro asked, "..What do you mean wrong?"
"I mean, whoever decided the term mutants is seriously jealous of these guys having powers. Anyone who hears this term would get the first impression of 'disease' like cancer. Like something is wrong with them, or just because they have powers they are not...human" I said making it a silence on the table with them trying to digest what I just said. I felt Jean trying to read my thoughts, so I just put on some hate on mutant's I read online as what I was thinking.
After a while Wanda asked, "So what do you think they should be called?"
" I don't really know how they get their powers so cannot make a guess on that, as for ideas, well.... how does 'Meta-humans sound?" I asked, and I could tell they liked it. I really hope this get's to Charles and he decides to include this in his book.
The lunch ended closing the discussion here, we exchanged numbers and went back to classes. After reaching home, I trained in the new gravity room , which was upgraded with all the training simulations I got from the danger room in X mansion. After two hours, I spent time completing homework and chatting. Oracle informed me the kids told Charles about our talk and he looked like he was thinking about it. I hope he doesn't try to enter my brain. An surface read is fine but if he goes in-depth, I may have to teach him a lesson.
I already sensed some memory alteration done by novice telepaths from the behavior's of Jean and Scott. Jean's was so Xavier could keep an eye on her because he considered her dangerous. He was literally destroying a kid's future because he considered her dangerous. I hated both him and Fury on this kind of view. He altered Scott's so he doesn't feel the pain on losing his brother. Pain was necessary in life to learn and grow to be responsible and strong. No wonder he acted like a kid and overly obsessed with Jean.
I will help put him to place and help with their memory soon, but not now. He still needs to write that book. After that I went to do some magic training and research given to me by master.
At night, I was standing on the Empire state building in stealth mode. I came here to experience how Spiderman swings, and took the iconic batman brooding pose. For some reason I felt a percentage of Batman's memory was gonna decrease. Anyway, I took the iconic leap of faith and spread my aura. Spiderman relied on his spider-sense to swing so I decided to use aura for this. The first few swings, were really close calls, then I got the hang of it and now I for the last 20 minutes I'm just swinging and parkouring around. The feeling of wind flowing through the air and the sense of loss of gravity for moments was thrilling, even more than flying. I really wanted to do this all day, but I took a responsibility so, I decided to go to do in New York today, specifically the Bronx.
It was second in crime rate to Hell's Kitchen, where Daredevil himself was active. I will greet him later. I already rescued 2 cases of attempted murder, robbing and people forcing themselves on someone. To my surprise, there were girls doing that to, and their hungry gaze was too disturbing so I knocked them out fast. Gender equality! I seriously don't wanna encounter them. They will probably plague my nightmares. I still don't have a girlfriend.
Anyway, I decided to collect proof and raid the so called Green Grass Gang. or GGG. Stupidest name I have ever heard. I already took photos of their different warehouses and was recording an ongoing deal right now. As soon as the deal ended, I littered the warehouse with black-sluggish smoke pellets and took out the lights. The smoke was not only pitch black, but also causes sluggishness and headache if inhaled. Perfect to disperse some gang. I swooped I and enabled the glow in my mask, to make them remember the face they saw before the pain. The pain of all the people whose lives they ruined by making them addicts.
I didn't take long at all to take them down, and nearly all of them were crying like kids seeing a ghost. The gunfire alerted the neighbor's and I left the place with all evidence they need with some of the officer's they had bribed. I wanted to weed out the corruption slowly but surely. I similarly raided all warehouses, leaving behind evidence and calling the police. I left one of the CCTV's capture me. Cause I already dealt with them, might as well have some fun as an relaxation.
After that I went and rested waiting for a new day.
*Stay tuned for more..*
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