Chapter 8: Valiant
(General P.O.V)
J Jonah Jameson's stern face became even redder due to anger.
"For a few months now, the new vigilante has been taking law into his own hands and disrupting public peace by his shenanigans."
J Jonah Jameson was a reputed member of society. The publisher and editor in chief of the daily bugle newspaper. He was invited into a talk show with 1 other guest.
"That's bold of you to say that, Jameson. The people he's saved would love nothing more than to disagree with you."
The other guest was a popular name in the city. He was the spokesperson of the mayors office.
Jameson's angry face turned to look at the suave gentleman sitting opposite him. The host of the talk show was between them.
"Don't tell me the Mayor's office supports this menace going around and beating people up, Mr. Sullivan?"
The other man didn't look ruffled by Jameson's intensity.
"I'm not here as a representative of the Mayor's office. My personal opinion is based on the feedback we have gotten from many civilians. Despite the dedication the police have in maintaining law and order in this great city of ours, they fall short in response. Valiant, as he's taken to call himself as not only helped a lot of people in need but tried his best to work with the NYPD. Calling in criminal activities that he knows for sure he can't handle and jumping in to help in cases that need quick intervention."
Words flowed out of Sullivan's mouth smoothly with barely an effort. J Jonah Jameson however, was not one to back down.
"You're wrong! What example does this Valiant set for our children? If he inspires good in people as you're trying to imply then it's only a matter of time before someone else tries to follow in his footsteps and they die."
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"Ugh. This guy is sooo negative. I can't believe he's supposed to be a hot-shot editor."
Peter mumbled in his breakfast while grumpily looking at the tv screen.
"If you think about it, he's got a point though."
Brian who had just come down to breakfast said.
"Oh so you finally decided to wake up huh?"
Peter rolled his eyes at his adoptive brother's antics. For the past few months he'd been sleeping later than usual.
One night, Peter actually woke up to use the toilet and found Brian's room empty. When he'd asked him about it the following morning, Brian had told him he'd been on the roof, thinking. Peter wasn't dumb, he just didn't want to investigate his brother too much. Not after everything Brian had done for him.
"Leave your brother alone Peter. He just woke up."
Aunt May's voice sounded from the kitchen.
"Morning kiddo."
"Morning Uncle Ben."
Brian replied while settling down at the table. He scooped up a healthy portion of pancakes and quickly went to town on them.
After they were done, the two teens took their bags and left for school. They met up with their usual gang at the front of the school and walked in while talking. Brian had to intimidate Flash again for the umpteenth time when he tried to bully Peter.
"Hey you alright?"
Brian inquired quietly at the upset Peter.
"Yeah I'm fine. I just hate that he always picks on those weaker than him."
Brian nodded and shrugged.
"I know. But you're smarter than him and I'd like to think that translates to being more patient too. After a few more years we'll probably never see people like Flash again."
Brian nudged him gently. Peter nodded while lost in thought.
"Hey, bro. You remember that question you asked me about the chance of bio-engineering a super soldier serum? I...I think it's possible. I've been theorizing and reading up on the documents you sent over to me and it's highly likely that the one you got the documents from is able to create a biogenic chemical compound that can augment a human body."
Brian stopped before the door. The hand gripping the handle tightly. Making the metal groan a little.
"What about the chances of a mental degradation upon administering the serum? Could that side effect be eliminated?"
Peter scrunched up his eyebrows in thought.
"Maybe. But it's hard to tell. The hard copies you gave me don't go into detail about how one could do it. Plus my specialty is physics and chemistry. You need a Bio-chem expert to tackle this."
Peter patted Brian on the shoulder and walked in. Leaving his adoptive brother standing outside in contemplation.
"A Bio-chem expert huh?"
(Brian's P.O.V)
I stood on the roof of the building overlooking an abandoned warehouse. I had my blue costume on but the difference was the huge V that on my chest.
Valiant, a name that had been picked out for me by an elderly couple I'd saved from a mugging. They had wanted to repay me by the old lady offering to make me her special mushroom soup.
I laughed a little while remembering that incident before resolving to focus my attention on what was going on in the warehouse.
There were loud shouting as men with guns transported huge boxes of weapons into trucks. My nightly activities had made the gangsters even more cautious and I counted no less than 50 gun men on site. Would the fight be easy? Probably.
I'd gotten better over the course of a few months after my first debut as Valiant. But just to be on the safe side...
"911, what's your emergency?"
"Hello this is Valiant I'm at the warehouse in downtown xxx xxx. I have my eyes on multiple criminals transporting a huge container of weapons into trucks."
"Sir, I'll have to ask you to vacate the premises immediately. The police are on the way."
"Yeah yeah. I hear that all the time. If I leave now, they'll hear the sirens and escape. I'm going in."
I cut the call and spread out my awareness. My skin tingled as I jumped off the building and onto the next one. Clearing a distance of 10 meters easily. There was a dull sound when I hit the roof top and one of the lookouts flashed a torch light at where I was.
My body pressed itself onto the roof of the warehouse and I went silent. The torch light went away and I creeped up onto the hatch on the roof. I gingerly opened it and landed in the rafters of the huge space. I dropped down the wall onto an office where the power panel for the building was.
A knife appeared in my hand and one swipe layer the building went dark. Instantly people started shouting in alarm and over a dozen flashlights came on.
I stepped off the container office and landed with an axe-kick at one of the criminals. He fell down with a oof! and his gun clattered to the ground. I spun away quickly as bullets sprayed my position. I came upon 4 guys. I swept the leg of the first and kicked him, sending him flying to his partner.
"Shoot you idiot!"
One of the two guys left shouted at his friend and they both pulled their triggers. I ducked under a huge box, waited until they reloaded, then kicked the box towards them.
The huge box dragged across the ground and took them both out. Flash lights came on again trying to find me and I smiled, stepping out into the light while raising up my hands.
"Fine fine I surrender, you got me."
A lot of guns were aimed at me but I calmly smiled. There was something I wanted to try. Something that had caused me many bruises when I'd begun training it earlier in the year.
"On second thought...all your moms are gay."
A hail of bullets from over 20 guns impacted my body immediately after the insult. Say what you will, but criminals love their mommas.
Unbelievably, to their eyes the bullets didn't even penetrate my body. Half of their force was nullified and the other half...well.
"Come on. Keep on shooting this freak aaah!"
One of them shouted at the others and the act of aggression continued before finally settling down after seeing nothing was changing. There were so many bullets under me. Almost reaching my ankles. There was also a blurry effect around me, similar to a tarmac road when it's hot.
"What...what are you?"
The one who looked like the boss asked fearfully. A trickle of blood fell down my nose but luckily they couldn't see it. My mind was feeling a strain that heralded the beginning of a massive headache.
But before it could hit me...I pulled back my fist in a basic stance of my martial arts.
"The name's Valiant."
I then brought my fist flying forward and with a crackle of power an unrelenting force was unleashed from my hand. Boooom!!!
"Aarghhh!"
The men were all pushed away from the huge blast of wind force caused by...
"Echo: Reverse."
The sleeve of my costume was torn away and my hand was aching.
I had tried my best to achieve the next level of echo and as a result I'd increased the limit of power I could redirect and nullify. Sirens started sounding so I escaped up to the roof and onto the adjacent building. I hadn't gotten all the criminals abd I didn't feel like running after them.
My Crime-fighting wasn't because I was a hero-type. Of course I wouldn't standby and let someone get hurt. Instead it was a training ground. Somewhere to push myself even further and looking at the cracked walks of the warehouse it was clear that all of my training hadn't been for nothing.
I sat down on the roof top of the building I was in and breathed in as the cops finally made it and started arresting the criminals. One of the criminals was saying something about a devil in blue which made me chuckle before wincing. I looked at my hand that was slowly healing.
Echo was a very powerful skill but it had it's shortcomings. If an attack was potent enough, I could break bones just trying to redirect or nullify it.
Echo: Reverse was definitely the riskiest part of echo. Echo in its basic form enhanced an attack I made by utilizing the energy in the air. Double echo enhanced an attack by 2 times but came with the risk of hurting myself. Echo Reverse on the other hand was much more dangerous.
In essence, I used my great control over the energy surrounding me by bleeding the momentum of an attack and accumulating it around my body hence the blurry effect. Then I used my limbs as a focal point to send that energy shooting forward. The energy in the air enhanced the attack resulting in an explosion of concussive force higher than the initial attack.
The problem was if I lost control of that energy while it was surrounding me then boom it would explode on my body surrounding me entirely. It had happened a few times with a baseball machine. I shuddered remembering the pain I'd felt.
"Now then...time to go back home and start thinking about how to get a Bio-chemistry expert smart enough to stabilize the goblin formula once I steal it. I wonder what would happen if I mixed the radiated spider's venom with the green goblin's serum?"
For an instant, I imagined how easy it would be to get the medallion's power while jacked up on both.
If that happened there were few things that could stop me.
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