Chapter 5

The next few minutes were spent with Liam admiring his new physique. Unlike his initial fears, the beastial changes weren't permanently on display. It felt more like a muscle than anything. 

With a thought, the scales on the sides of his eyes and face receded, slit pupils returning to their normal shape. He felt his fangs shift back into normal teeth.

'I feel incredible!' He thought in amazement, lightly flexing his muscles before looking back at the wall that he dented in his earlier haste. 

"That is going to be a problem." He muttered. 

The implications of not being able to control his own strength was disconcerting but overall that was a small price that he would be willing to pay until he got it under control. 

+++++

-[William Anderson]

-[Lifeforce Serpentkin. A powerful race possessing immense vitality and durability who can survive even the toughest circumstances. A being whose very blood is flooded with vitality, both literally and figuratively, becoming a panacea to any who dare to taste. The Lifeforce Serpentkin's fangs secret a potent hallucinogenic venom. His recent evolution had the unexpected result of awakening his metagene, granting him some psychic abilities.]

+++++

The last sentence got his attention. Psychic abilities tended to be dangerous, sometimes even to the user. The fact that he didn't hear the thoughts of anyone in his head told him that he couldn't read minds. 

'Either that or I have a very short range but I seriously doubt that.' He thought, observing himself in the mirror with a small frown. 

Exiting the bathroom, he went to the kitchen, taking a knife from the drawer. He steeled himself, gripping the handle firmly before making a steady gash across his palm, wincing as he did so. 

Despite knowing what was going to happen, it was still amazing to watch as the injury healed, knitting itself closed in seconds.

As tempting as it was to find out how fast he could recover from a stab wound, he had no interest in more actions of self harm. 

•••

Donning a dark hoodie and some running shoes, he set out of the building in a brisk walk not stopping until he was some distance away. 

A change he didn't account for was that he could now smell the subtle scents/stench of Gotham more than before thanks to his boosted sense of smell. 

Throwing that into the back of his head, he fell into a slow jog. With each step he took, he increased his speed. It was night time and most people knew better than to stay out by this time unless necessary. 

Feeling the breeze blowing against his face, he pushed himself, immediately running at the highest speed his body could carry him. Unlike the last time, he was ready for it, allowing him to steadily navigate himself. 

Avoiding people, he stopped after a few minutes. Barely even panting, he found himself in a different neighborhood altogether. 

'While I'm not a speedster, I have a clearly inhuman level of speed.' He understood, before pausing as the stench of sweat mixed with something else permeated the area. 

Wrinkling his nose in confusion and disgust, he moved towards where the smell seemed to come from. Turning the corner, he immediately froze at what he found. 

Up ahead, he caught sight of armed men unloading boxes from the back of a van into a warehouse. What made them stick out even more to Liam was the fact that they all had their faces painted like clowns. 

'Joker's thugs. Just great!' He thought sarcastically as he saw them bring out another large box that was dressed not dissimilar to a birthday gift. 

+++++

-[Joker's Surprise]

-[A birthday themed box containing a bomb with a very powerful charge.]

+++++

Before he could decide how to react, he felt a hand land on his shoulder. He was so engrossed in watching the goons that he jumped at the physical contact. 

He turned to see a man looking down at him in confusion. "Hey kid, what are yo-"

He didn't let him finish, grabbing him, his other hand covering the man's mouth and sped away into the closest corner, which happened to be an alley, just in time as he saw one goon's head turn. 

"Anyone else hear that?" He heard one of them ask. 

"Hear what?" Another asked in confusion. 

"I don't know. I'm going to check it out." He heard the first one said.

His heart rate sped up, eyes widening, his attention was dragged back to the man struggling and failing to get Liam's palm off his mouth. 

"Mmphh! Mmph!" He noisily struggled to speak, grasping at Liam's hand. 

"Shut up!" Liam whispered harshly, staring straight into the man's terrified eyes in frustration only for his frustration to turn to confusion as the man's attempts to speak stopped. 

The man's eyes widened to the point that Liam was afraid they would pop out of their socket but he didn't attempt to scream anymore, only clawing at his hand. 

Liam's expression moved from confusion to realization before moving to curiosity, all in a matter of moments.

"Stop moving." He whispered to the man, his eyes flickering to the road upon smelling the goon moving in their direction.

His words seemingly fell on deaf ears, confusing him for a moment before he tried something else. Looking directly into the man's eyes like he did before, he felt something 'click' in his brain. 

"Stay still." He whispered, maintaining eye contact. 

To his relief, the man stopped struggling, now unmoving. It was just in time as the goon stopped in front of the alley for a moment. 

Despite being much stronger, Liam felt his breath hitch for a moment as the goon began stalking into the alley. 

Numerous thoughts ran through Liam's mind at the moment but he steadied himself as he felt the goon get closer and closer. 

When he was close enough, he sped out of hiding, ripping the gun from the goon's hand before he had the chance to pull the trigger.

His hand immediately gripped him by the neck, stopping his attempt to scream and pulling him closer to look him in the eyes. 

"Forget that you saw me. There was nobody here. You were just hearing things." Liam spoke, the goon going limp for a moment, a trancelike expression on his face as he released his hold on his neck. 

Handing the man back his gun, he watched him take it before silently walking out of the alley. Only when the man was completely out of the alley did Liam let himself breath. 

After a minute with nobody coming to check, he let himself lean on the wall in relief. 

'Mind compulsion. I'm a vampire rip off.' He thought before looking back at the man he had compelled to stay still. 

He frowned in thought. 

He wasn't a hero, wearing tights and capes. Wherever Joker's goons were, the clown prince himself was probably nearby. He could decide to run back home and believe that Batman would sort it all out. 

That everything would be alright…but he knew he couldn't. 

As much as he wanted to look away, he knew that he didn't just want to be a passerby in life, waiting and hoping for one of the heroes to swoop in and save the day.

'All that talk about wanting to be strong and you're still hesitating.' He thought in a self deprecating manner, a humorless smile on his lips. 'Idiot.'

He moved to the man, looking him dead in the eyes. "Forget about everything that happened here. Go about doing whatever you were doing before you saw me." He said, causing the man's eyes to unfocus for a moment before quickly focusing back. 

"Sure." With that, the man left the alley. 

After the man left, Liam also exited, quietly moving back to peeking at the goons who had now finished offloading the last box. 

"Once we're done prepping the bombs, we're leaving." He heard one say. 

Liam counted six of them in total, minus the single scent that he could smell inside. Taking a deep breath, he steeled his resolve. 

'I really am an idiot.' He thought before speeding into the scene such that he was almost a blur from their point of view. 

Snatching the gun from a goon's hand, he smashed it into the side of his face in a single moment. Just as the other began to react, he lashed out again, the weapon creaking this time as it made contact with the back of another goon's head. 

"What the hell?!"

"What's going on?!"

"Who cares! Light him up!"

At that order, Liam moved, his hoodie already raised to hide most of his features. 

He managed to catch one more goon with a fist in the face, knocking him unconscious before he felt bullets get shot into his back. 

He barely bit down a scream as he stumbled. Moving out of sight faster than they could react, he was behind them, gripping them by their clothes and throwing them into the wall. 

The last man turned around only to be met with a fist across his face, knocking him out. 

'All that's left is-' his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of shotgun rounds being fired and the feeling of his heart and chest being painfully pierced through. 

'Shit!'

Liam's body lost strength, his vision darkening as he fell to the floor, silent and unmoving. 

•••

The goon showed a grin on his painted face as he looked down at the corpse. Daring to kick it, he was happy to find that it didn't move. 

"Take that freak!" He taunted the corpse before looking around. 

He was arming the bomb when he heard gunfire. At first he thought it was going to be Batman and Robin but he found a stranger in a hoodie instead trashing his fellow men. 

Seeing that they were simply unconscious, he let out a sigh of relief before walking back into the warehouse to finish arming the bomb. 

"Since when did Gotham start having supers running around? Imagine what the boss will give me when I tell him this." He muttered, his eyes showing immense greed. 

As he dropped his gun to the side and continued arming the bomb, he could almost hum a tune. 

Then it happened so fast. 

He felt himself restrained from behind by strong arms as a pair of fangs dug into his neck. A pained scream tore itself out of his throat as he just barely managed to see the culprit as pain and weakness throughout his body. 

He came face to face with yellow eyes and slit pupils as the monster dug its teeth through his neck before he found himself being slammed into the wall, his vision going blank immediately. 

•••

Liam panted as he looked at the drowned man, the veins around his bite mark darkened to show the presence of his venom. 

Seeing that all his opponents were down, he let his shoulders sag as he looked down to his chest to see smooth skin. The skin was a bit red but it was quickly fading. A quick check had him feeling his back that was now completely healed. 

'At least now I know I can survive a bullet through my heart.' He thought before looking at the bomb which he managed to stop him from arming. 

He thought he was dead. His heart had already begun knitting itself back together before he fell to the ground. The amazing life energy surging through his body kept him alive through that until it fully regenerated. 

'I'm an idiot, but I'm an idiot who won.'