Chapter 16

[A/N: Here it is, what you've all been waiting for! The start to Jax's darkness and the action! The last chapter for the day, so I hope y'all have a Happy Turkey Day!]

Unknown to anyone, thanks to the powerful hate that fueled the Curse cast by Jax; Luke and Eddie's lives meet misfortune almost immediately. Hours later after school, both Luke and Eddie get stopped by the police due to them being wanted for questioning gang-related activities.

As the cops were about to surround the two, Eddie pushed Luke towards the cops, causing him to fall while he ran away. In the end, it took multiple cops just to apprehend Luke in his anger from being betrayed, until a single cop violently, yet effectively brought Luke down.

"My name is Detective Frank Castle, and we have a long discussion ahead of us, Cage. The more you fight back, the more 'off camera' questions I'll need to ask, you hear me?" said the cop as he roughly manhandled Luke into the car.

While Luke was taken in and being selected to participate in an experiment, Eddie was running for his life, as the cops started to gain on him, until he hid deep in a dumpster of an abandoned factory. Hours later, as Eddie thinks the coast is finally clear and is about to leave the dumpster, he hears a terrifying voice that will change his life forever.

"We have finally found you, Host! We can smell the Dark Ones, hold on you!" said a black, undulating slime as it quickly expanded and seemingly swallowed Eddie into a large, black blob.

~ ~ ~ ~

Unaware of the karma delivered to two of the people he hated most in this world, Jax continues his training with Slade to get his mind off of the events from earlier that day. Jax had been making a ton of progress and was to the point where he could block some attacks from Deathstroke and even land a few of his own.

Now that most of his major projects were finished, Jax had a lot more time to do his training with the Holocron and study its technology after his training sessions. Jax figured if he had to make a guess, he was nearly complete with his training from Slade, as his master had taught him a great many things, from combat, leadership, tactics, languages, firearms, swordsmanship, you name it. If it was a way to kill someone, Jax learned it.

The issue is, Jax realized that though he may learn all of this knowledge, it would take him a long time to master it.

As he trained against Slade, stewing in his anger, Jax felt the darkness around him becoming more and more tangible and felt as though he could control it with some effort. As Slade slashed at him with his sword, with no virtual way to dodge the attack, out of reflex, Jax used the darkness around him to form demonic wings on his back and lifted him into the air.

"Holy shit... I can fly... I can finally fucking fly!" Jax shouted in excitement as he swayed in the air, still not used to flying.

"Do you think a small fact like this will save you from me? It is barely an inconvenience." Slade said from behind Jax, sending shivers down his spine before Slade kicked him back to the ground.

As Jax smacked against the floor, creating a small crater, the darkness that Jax used to form his wings dissipated into wisps as Jax groaned on the floor. That was just like Deathstroke, as soon as Jax got excited about something, he ruthlessly put him down and humbled him.

Jax wasn't too worried though, as he had been beaten and nearly killed by Slade many times and was almost used to it at that point.

"Your training is nearly complete. Your next task is something you seem to be the most reluctant against. Killing someone. Your weakness in not wanting to kill will be your downfall in the future if we do not cull it now. You are no hero, we both know that. So, don't try to think like one. Until getting your First Blood, I don't care who it is or how you do it, your training is halted." Slade said before his form disappeared.

At this, Jax felt bile start to rise in his throat, as he had yet to kill anyone before. Hell, he's barely fought since he's been in this world. With his smarts and training, Jax knew the best action for him to take next, he was just scared of what he will become afterward.

"Well, I guess tonight is the night that the world sees my new Darkclaw armor for the first time. I just wish it wasn't on Halloween." Jax said as he pulled himself from the crater and went to clean himself up.

Jax did not want to tell MJ what he was about to do, because though she had been incredibly understanding so far and even training hard in her sparring matches, Jax wasn't she how she'd react if he was going out to actively look for someone to kill. Luckily for him, she was already sound asleep in bed, so without further hesitation, Jax donned his new armor and teleported to the top of the Umbra Tower as he overlooked the city.

Jax grew an ominous feeling as he looked up and saw that the moon was tinged red, which was never really a good sign, especially on Halloween.

Not really wanting to kill someone so near Umbra Tower, Jax decided to head to Midtown, where he heard a lot of strange things had been happening recently. Sprout another set of his demonic wings, Jax was positive that he look terrifying, especially with his new armor.

As Jax flew over the city, getting used to his new flying capabilities, Jax saw a red and blue figure moving quickly through the city, chasing a speeding car. Upon closer inspection, Jax saw that it was Spiderman! He wasn't wearing the iconic suit, but a red ski mask with the holes cut out, a red sweater with a spider painted on it, blue jeans, and some sneakers.

Jax had seen Peter outside of school for a little while now, as he seemingly always has to "work", but as he what Peter chase the car so frantically and since he knew what happened around this time in the movies, Jax suspected that Uncle Ben was dead and Peter was chasing his killer.

Choosing to merely observe, for now, Jax used the cover of darkness to follow the chase, making sure to keep a safe distance. But, Jax's caution proved to be unneeded as the van soon crashed by the pier and the criminals ran from the van and into an empty building, which seemed like a dumb move to Jax as they now had nowhere to go, and judging from the police sirens in the distance, they'd soon have company.

Following Peter inside the building, Jax found that the building was not empty like he thought, but filled with even more thugs, like some sort of hideout, making the thugs even dumber for leading the cops straight to their base.

Jax was confident that Peter could handle these guys by himself but soon realized that not only was Peter currently clouded by anger but was inexperienced at this point, which lead to Peter taking far more damage than Jax felt comfortable with.

Since Peter was his friend and didn't have a healing factor like him, Jax decided to step in. Extending his claws, Jax jumped straight into the middle of the fray, gaining everyone's attention immediately.

"There's another one! And this one looks like he means business!"

"Is he even fucking human?? He looks like a monster or a demon or something. I-I don't know how to fight no demons guys!" shouted a few of the thugs as instead of attacking Jax like they did Peter, they slowly backed away, not wanting to be the first to fight him.

"Who the hell are you?! Unless you want to join these guys, get out of here! They're mine!" yelled Peter as he punched two thugs, only to be hit hard by one from behind.

"Yeah, it looks like you got this understanding complete control," Jax said sarcastically as conjured darkness to the tips of his claws, sending a Dark Slash towards a group of enemies, but regretting it soon after. The attack was too powerful, as the thugs in the way of the slash were cut in pieces, guys and other organs spilling out as their blood splattered everywhere.

Jax and everyone else was shocked and wanted to turn over and empty his stomach at the gruesome scene, but thanks to his training from Slade already affecting his mentality, Jax shelved this new emotion for now as he used the darkness around them to form spikes, impaling all of the still-standing thugs at once.

"What did you do?! Why did you kill them?!" Peter yelled as he shot a web at Jax, only for Jax to move slightly out of the way, grabbing the web as it passed and yanking it, pulling Peter towards him.

As Peter flew in the air, he did a quick flip to stabilize himself while he rapid fired webs at Jax, as Jax either agilely dodged them or slashed them with his claws.

"I am not your enemy... what are you, some kind nod Spider-Man? Either way, I can smell death on all of these thugs, meaning that they have been killed before. Would you let a killer live if it meant that innocent people may die, Spiderman?" Jax asked, preemptively giving his iconic hero name early.

"I hate how much I actually like that name, it kind of rolls off the tongue. Still, no good will come from senseless killing! A wise man once told me, that with great power, comes great responsibility... I think I finally understand that now. Which is why, no matter what, I will stop you from killing any more people!" Peter exclaimed as he shot two webs behind Jax and slingshot himself towards Jax.

Seeing that using his webs at a long distance wasn't working for him, Peter decided to try fighting up close. Unfortunately for Peter, this is exactly what Jax had planned. Using his experience from training with Slade, Jax ducked down to dodge the flying kick heading for his face.

Clasping his hands together with his index fingers extended, Jax waited until Peter flew over him and launched the ultimate secret Jutsu and stabbed his fingers and Peter's butt, just like Kakashi did Naruto.

With a high-pitched scream from a man who won't be sitting right for days, Peter clumsily crashed into the wall behind Jax, the brick collapsing and falling on top of him, adding even more damage.

Before he could stand, Jax formed a tentacle out of darkness and wrapped it around Peter's neck, choking him as he brought him face to face.

"You preach about great responsibility but are too naive to even know what it means. Mmm, your anger and darkness brewing inside of you. I can practically taste your rage, Spiderman. If you wish to get me back, get stronger and find me." Jax said, his voice coming out as dark and menacing as Peter passed out from being choked by him.

Hearing the sirens getting closer, and not wanting Spiderman to become branded as a vicious murderer, Jax pulled all of the thugs he killed into his pocket of the Shadow realm. Throwing Peter over his shoulder, Jax teleported to the top of a building where Peter won't be found and left him there.

Teleporting a distance away in a dark alley, Jax threw off his helmet as he bent down and started throwing up, the sight of the disfigured bodies still haunting Jax each time he closes his eyes.

'How do they make it seem so easy in the movies? Holy fuck, I killed people... like a lot of fucking people... I'm a killer now, how can I look at MJ and Mom the same again after this?!' Jax thought in his inner turmoil until he heard a can fall to the ground, looked over, and saw an old homeless man looking at him in fear as he continued shaking in fear.

Realizing that this man just saw him with his mask off, Jax's mind went haywire as his mind told him what he needed to do, but he was reluctant to do it. Until the old man scrambled to his feet and started to run off. But, before the man could make it to the end of the alleyway, a skinny, black spike impaled the old man, giving him a quick death.

After giving the old man a quick death, Jax just numbly opened a portal and sent the man to the shadow realm to hide the body. The worse part of all of this, Jax feared that he was getting used to killing, as killing the old man wasn't nearly as hard as killing those group of thugs.

Emotionally drained, and no longer wishing to make this an even worse Halloween, Jax was about to teleport home, but his Danger senses went off, but before he could get a chance to react, a blast of energy hit his back, sending him rocketing into the busy streets, crashing into several moving cars before stopping.

"Okay, you weird...alien... monster thing, killing homeless old men is a big no, no, so it looks like your Halloween treat is to help me test out my new suit." said a cocky voice that told Jax this guy was going to be a headache, and as he looked up from inside a broken car, he realized that was an understatement.

"Ironman..... fuck."