3 Chapter 3: Dojo

Both the cops and an ambulance didn't take long to rush here. However, by the time they arrived Edward had already fainted. Maybe he fainted because of the loss of blood, or maybe the back of his head was smacked because he wouldn't shut up… who knows.

When Edward opened his eyes again, and fortunately he did, he found himself in a bed that was too hard to be his own. He looked around and easily recognized a hospital. And much to his surprise, his neighbour, Diana, was sitting by his side, legs crossed and on her phone.

She seemed to notice the movement of his head as she instantly raised her head and said "Is your hand hurting?"

Edward was reminded of the earlier events by her words and looked at his left hand, only to see it was heavily bandaged. He did feel some pain, but it was nothing compared to earlier. So he shrugged and said "It stings a little."

He then turned his head towards her and asked "Are you some kind of terrorist? Who would bring weapons like you around?"

Diana was confused for a moment, before remembering what he said to her earlier. She rolled her eyes and said "Is it really so bad to have an old phone?"

Edward shrugged and said "I guess you like antiquities, being a curator and everything." Diana let out a small smile, but quickly wiped it off as she asked "Do you feel alright though? There are a couple of officers outside waiting for you to wake up to ask you questions."

Edward titled his head and said "Policemen? Why would they be waiting for me?" Diana shrugged and said "Apparently this wasn't just a thug trying to rob you, the man wanted to kill you."

He suddenly felt a shiver as he heard her words, but he forced it down with a swallow and said "Well, I guess I owe you then. How am I going to thank you now?"

Diana shook her head though and said "There's no need for you to thank me, I simply did the right thing."

Edward couldn't help but be stunned by her words. The right thing, huh…

"Well, now that you are awake, I should probably go and tell the officers you are awake." Diana said, getting up from her chair.

However, Edward grabbed her wrist, stopping her, and said "Not only you saved my life, you even waited for me. I insist, I need to thank you. How about I invite you for dinner?"

Diana looked at Edward silently for a moment, before saying "Sure, we can tour the city the same day." As she said that, she took out her phone and asked his number.

After registering him, she smiled and left. Edward almost couldn't help himself but check her out as she left, but he was able to restrain himself with a great effort.

A few seconds later, two people entered, a young woman and an older man. Both were dressed the same way, with the man taking the lead and the woman behind. They approached his bed and the man stretched out his hand, and said "Hello, I'm Agent Kein, but you can call me Frank, and this is Agent Morse."

Edward took his hand, but titled his head and said "Edward… sorry, did you just say Agent?" Frank smiled and said "Yes. We have some questions for you, nothing against you, of course, we are just curious why you were attacked."

Edward nodded, so Agent Morse took out a notepad and asked "What were you doing when you were attacked?"

Edward replied "I was on my way to work, I was just leaving my apartment." Agent Morse nodded and was about to ask another question when Frank suddenly asked "Did you get attacked right when you left your building? Would it be possible that man was waiting for you?"

He tilted his head, and after a moment said "Highly probable. The first thing he tried to do was to stab me while bumping into me, he did not try to rob me, he tried to kill me right off the bat, and without letting me see his face. Since he didn't say anything or want to show his face, I would say he was an assassin hired to kill me."

Morse blinked several times, not sure whether she should write it down, and it was Frank who reminded her by faking a cough. He then smiled at Edward and asked "Any idea why you would be targeted?"

Edward shrugged and said "I have some people who don't like me, for sure, but I don't have any enemy. And definitely not someone influential enough to hire an assassin, so I don't think I was the real target here."

Frank asked "But you were the one attacked."

Edward replied "Since you are 'agents', I believe you already know I started working for Oscorp recently. I think they are the target."

Frank looked at his partner, Agent Morse, who nodded, and he said "I think we have heard enough for now, thank you for your time and have a great recovery." As he said that, the two walked toward the door, but right before closing it, he said "Oh, and if you can, don't leave the city." With those words, he left.

However, Edward couldn't help but frown. Was that a threat? Are they suspicious of him?

Not long after the agents, a nurse came to him, and told him about his injuries. Apparently, his chest injury was superficial and would take a week to heal, as for his hand he was apparently very lucky as nothing important was hit, and in a month he would make a full recovery. Indeed, he was quite lucky.

Later the same day he was called by Oscorp, who learned of what happened to him, and was allowed a week's leave.

He also had to spend a night in the hospital because of the loss of blood, and so it was only the next day he was able to get back home.

Since he had nothing to do, he wanted to play video games, but his hand made that impossible. So it was a rather boring day, but toward the end of the day, Diana came to his house to check on him. Obviously, he invited her in, and they talked for some time.

They also agreed to tour the city in a few days, while he was still on medical leave, since he probably would be busy when he went back to working.

And the day after… he had another surprise. Someone else came knocking on his door. And when he opened, he was flabbergasted when he saw it was his boss. Not Curtis. Not whoever was above Curtis. THE. Boss.

Norman Osborn himself. Their talk was brief, not much was said, but Edward wasn't so sure it was a competitor who tried to kill him as Osborn asked him many details, and didn't seem to know anything about what happened to him.

Apart from that, their conversation was short, kind of awkward and was definitely something Edward didn't want to do ever again, although it was to be expected since they had the relationship of a boss and an employee.

The rest of the week passed by quickly then, and Edward mostly played video games. Of course, there was something else he tried everyday, and that was thinking about the weird instinct he had against the assassin.

He wasn't a fool, maybe dodging once or twice was luck or some kind of instinct, but that many times in a row? That wasn't luck, something was tempering with his mind… and honestly, Edward only saw a single answer to his situation. He was a mutant.

Mutant kind was… ambiguous. Everyone knew they existed, and yet they hid from the world. From time to time there would be news about some mutants, mostly criminals who used their mutation in nefarious ways. A few years back a few tried to join the police, to use their powers for the right cause, but after a few accidents they all quitted. Since then mutants kind of disappeared, and they were somewhat of an urban legend.

Some believed they didn't exist at all, others believed they were the government's secret weapons or failed experimentations and were in Area 51… Honestly, the human mind could be quite funny when it tried to explain something it didn't understand.

Edward was different from most though, as he not only believed in their existence, he knew they existed. How? He studied one.

Not in the dangerous/edgy/shady way, one day he witnessed a mutant in action. And now, with what happened to him, the only reason he could only think of was mutation.

To be honest, he didn't really know what to think about it, what he should do about it. First, he decided to experiment with it, and the results were disappointing to say the least.

He didn't manage to bring it out. He didn't even know how to. His power allowed him to dodge strikes. No, to predict them. What was he supposed to do with that? Was he supposed to get someone to hit him?

Edward didn't have some kind of weird fetish, no offence to those who does, and he would rather explore other venues rather than going for that. But after a week of trials, nothing. At the end he even tried to create a small catapult and have it throw a small rock at him, but the result was a bruise on his arm.

Well, not everything went wrong. He had his date with Diana, they spent the day walking around New York, and they finished by eating at a French restaurant that was quite famous. Edward wanted to flex his French, but much to his dismay, Diana was even better than him. Still, the day went great, and Diana officially became his first friend from the Big Apple.

Still, after that week, Edward had to go back to work, and was pleasantly surprised when he saw his assistants had well advanced, even without him being there. It was also nice knowing Connors and his wife cared about his well being.

There was something he did hide though, as everyone thought he could only use one hand, but that was actually wrong. For some reason, his healing went much faster than it should have been, and his hand had already been healed.

He did not show it though, keeping his hand bandaged because he knew how mutants were treated by most people, and healing in only a week from a stab wound was abnormal.

It was quite weird though, as far as he knew, mutant powers were unique, one couldn't have two of them, so was there some correlation between his strengthened instinct and his improved healing factor?

So many question, and unfortunately, so little answers…

After his first day back at work, he did not go back at home straight away. He had already completely adapted to the life here in New York, and that included a normal sleeping schedule, so he wasn't as tired as he used to be at the end of the day.

Moreover, he found out that along with his enhanced regeneration, he also didn't need to sleep as much as he used to, and now could be considered to be well rested after only five hours of sleep.

Speaking of his powers, it was one of the reasons why he didn't go back home straight away. In his week of free time, he had experimented as much as he could, but he never was able to feel his instinct again, so he decided to recreate the situation.

And this led him to where he was today, which was in front of a dojo called 'Hidden Dragon Crouching Tiger'.