Chapter 50: Fight and Potion.

He let his guard down before. Now he's paying for it, although it's only a small price. 

"What's going on? How did he cut me?" 

Seeing the man he brought humiliated, the drug dealer Kleo, screamed, "Get up or I'll kill you!". 

He's pretty mad even though he pays Roxxon a million dollars for the guy, he is useless! He threatens to use a remote he holds in his hand.

"Shut up, I haven't lost yet!" The dreadlock stands back up. V finally saw what happened. 

On the dreadlock arm, bone spurs are growing out of it. It grows from his palm until his elbow, in both his hands. 

"Mutants? Wait, there aren't any mutants in this universe. ", V mutters. 

He takes another look at the ability. His eyes narrowed. "Still, it didn't change anything"

"What are you whispering about! COME HERE!" Dreadlock yelled. At the time, Kleo Moretti had already run away. 

"You're dead!" Dreadlock runs to V and jabs at him a few times. V uses his dagger to block it. Dreadlock is a little stronger than normal humans, pushing V around.

The bone man didn't notice that he might have died a few times. V, who is controlled by Ryan, almost stabs into his neck or his eyes a few times, but he barely controls himself.

Jumping acrobatically to take a step back, V sighs and says calmly. "I don't think I can subdue you without killing you, so someone else will take over"

Confused, the dreadlock said, "Y-You're the only one here?" 

Dreadlock then notices V's temperament changes. From cold to smiling. His voice has more life to them now. V said "OH MY GOD. It's BONERMAN!" 

Ryan changes control with Kai, as the latter is more proficient in close combat. The vigilante character he plays didn't kill people, it'll be hard to do that if he didn't change.  Kai is better than him anyway in this stuff. 

Angered, Bonerman bone spurs grow longer. "Oh damn, he could control his boner length! Your girlfriend must be pleased" 

"SHUT UP! Shut the HELL UP!" Bone spurs now grow from all parts of his arm, including his shoulder. It looks like Bonerman had worn bone armor. 

"The angrier he gets, the more bone he sprouts. He's just like a mutant.", thinking deeply, V is avoiding Bonermans punches now instead of blocking. 'Even his strength has increased, he thought. 

"It's time to end this", V said to Bonerman. He closes the distance and punches the guy's nose. "Urk you Bastar…"

He continues to grab the elbow and snaps them off. Even if the arm is covered in bone armor, the hardness of the bones is ordinary. He ends it with a knee kick to the guy's temple.

The big guy is finally unconscious. He didn't give him any trouble, to be honest, the only time he's hurt is because he lets his guard down. 

"Now, let's go find the bastard Kleo '', before he could leave, he saw a red light blinking on Bonerman's collar.

"Damn it", he crouches next to the unconscious guy.

Using his dagger, he pried the lock of the collar open. Removing the collar, he sees a needle protruding out of it, and the blinking light becomes faster. *BOOM!! *

A massive explosion occurs. Luckily V manages to throw the collars outside the building before it happens. "Whew, close call". 

Sirens come blaring, he knows he doesn't have time left. He took one last look at Bonerman, it seemed that his body had atrophied. He becomes smaller and thinner. 

"It must be a backlash. I need to find the source of the collar, or whatever drugs were injected into him" 

*Tap tap* He hears the sound of police running up the stairs. V ran away from the scene. He needs to find Kleo now and get what he knows. 

"V STOP!" The police yell, but he is already gone. The police see the massive drug packets and drug money at the scene. All the evidence is there. "But what's going on with that man?" 

They reported about a man clad in bones to the upper echelon. A few minutes later, a team of well-dressed agents comes to the scene. Jasper Sitwell said, "We'll take it from here". 

As there is an 'enhanced' on the scene, Shield is responsible for events. Sitwell, an undercover Hydra agent, now puts more importance on V, as he can beat a superpowered person. 

"Sir, we found traces of DNA that didn't belong to anyone here!", an agent found blood on the bone spur. 

Sitwell is excited. "Compare the DNA to any known databases. It must be V. We can find him now!" 

He had been working for a few days, but there wasn't any lead. The other guy always escaped using the sewer, and there's no evidence left at the scene. Now, he has a lead to find him. 

" This kind of talent is useful for Hydra! " Sitwell schemed. But before he could do anything, he got a phone call. *Ring*

"Hello?" The voice from the phone said "Agent Sitwell, your mission is now over. Hand over your material to Agent Coulson before you leave." 

The guy is stunned. It's a call from Director Fury. He couldn't even report to Alexander Pierce before he was kicked out of the mission. 

… 

In one of the modified bomb shelters, a V base is set up here.

" The wound is not deep. It simply needed stitching."

Kai is maintaining the clone body. It'll be weird if he controls the clone at the same time, so V is offline at the moment. The clone is just limping there. 

There is some fracture on the clone's knees and arm, because of the strength he needed to put to subdue the opponent. Ryan will come by to treat it with magic later.

At the same time, Kleo Moretti, the leader of the drug dealer, is panicking." V, the kingpin, Roxxon, all of them. All of them want to mess with me!!" 

His mental state is worsening. It happens after he calls Roxxon's representative to demand him responsibility for giving him a weak guy. But the representative ignores him. 

He used to be someone who is feared. Now, he's like a disgraceful, beaten-up dog in the alley. Anger boiled up in his mind. "I'LL GET MY REVENGE ON ALL OF YOU!!" 

On the other side of the call, the company representative gives a new order to his assistant. 

"We need to shelve this project for a while to take the heat off us. Focus on the research about negative energy now."

On the shadowy figures desk, there is a record of another successful experiment. A guy who is wrongly imprisoned, but volunteered to do research. However, on the file, the guy's record is stamped with the word [MISSING]

… 

The elf finally returned from space. "Welcome home!" all the members of the island are gathered to welcome him back. He is a bit embarrassed by the gesture. 

At the banquet, Yelena and Park Shin are surrounded by the kids. They keep asking about outer space. 

"What are the rocks you brought back?" A kid asks. Yelena smiles and says "That's an asteroid"

"Why is it so small?", looking at the asteroid the size of a soccer ball, they become more curious. 

Park Shin said "Deer God shrunk them and brought them into the ship. He said he's going to refine the ore in it."

Yinsen and Annika are sitting near the elf. They are talking about what's going on on the island when the elf is not there. 

"Your friend does stop by, but one of them didn't get along well with the others."

"The kids miss you. They are surrounding your quarters every day. And they are on their best behavior. I guess that they want you to come back and not to leave them" 

The elf nodded hearing the reports. He never asked for it, but he didn't stop them from doing so. Yinsen asked, "Do you meet an alien?" 

The physicist is excited. The elf shows the possibility of a bigger universe. He smiles behind the mask. "We did, but they are the bad ones." 

He shared the knowledge of empires in the universe, Xandar, Kree, Shi'ar, Asgard, and others. Both of them are absorbed in the knowledge. "Will they come here? On earth?" 

The elf shakes his head. "The position of the earth is unique. It's the center of the world tree. When visitors want to come, we are protected by Asgard, as King Odin is the ruler of the Nine Realms." 

"Asgard, Odin, Wait are you talking about the mythology? That's real?" Yinsen asked. Annika had never doubted it because it came from her god's mouth. 

"Yes, they have been protecting the earth for quite some time" 

"But, right now things aren't like how they used to be. We might get visitors on the planet in the future"

After the conversation, the elf gives some samples to Yinsen. 

"Make sure that the kids learn how to analyze the soil. If they don't pass, they can't train until they do." 

"A sample from another planet? Don't worry, I'll make sure of it." Yinsen is very excited about the sciences.

When he first came here, never would he have thought of the mystical island, technology reigns supreme here compared to any other country in the world. He had learned and built some things on his own.

"Annika, please follow me", the elf invited her to his lab. There isn't anyone who manages to step foot here other than Kai and Ryan. 

An experiment with the dragon keel produces some results. But it's not helpful for him. So he decided to give it to Annika to strengthen her. 

To be honest, her talent is ordinary. Many other islanders already beat her in cultivating chi. 

She is the leader. She couldn't be weaker than the others. The elf knows that she's been training harder and harder until she spits out blood. 

"She has undying faith in me. It's a little disturbing but I should give her something special". The elf smirks behind the mask. 

Annika's heart is beating wildly when she follows her god. She's afraid that she will be demoted as the leader. She knows that she isn't as talented as others. Yelena and Park Shin, and many more, all ready surpass her. 

" Calm down, and have a sit ", the elf pours some tea for her. "I know what you're thinking, it's nothing like that. As a leader, you are entitled to some benefits" 

"What do you mean?" Annika is excited. She never put on a facade to her god. All her expressions can be read on her face. 

The elf takes out a bottle of golden fluid and gives it to her. "This can help you in your chi refining." 

It's a potion made with the dragon keel and some pill refining techniques from a cultivation world. It has a mixture of dragon saliva grass, 50 years old ginseng, and more. It took a while for him to come out with the combination. 

He knows for sure that the level of techniques is better than his universe. Kai and Ryan took over in making the potion while he was in space. The one he gave Annika is the best one of the batch.

He got 10 similar potions that he couldn't use after refining them. He plans to give it to the best girl as a gift. 

"It can give you 20 years of chi. You should take it in front of me, so I can be there in case something goes wrong." 

"When I'm with you, nothing could go wrong", Annika thought in her heart. Her fanaticism is astonishing. 

She took off all her clothes and sat cross-legged in the elf's living room. Her body isn't muscular at all even if she can lift tons of weight right now. 

" You don't have to take off your underwear…" the elf stops her from going any further.

After getting ready, she drank the potions. She can feel warm energy spreading through her body. 

"Be focused. Guide the energy to your body. Don't forget to activate your chi refining technique" 

It continues for an hour. Annika finally digested the potion. "This is.. Intoxicating". She opens her eyes and feels her new power. 

"Congratulations, Now go take a bath?" 

She's a bit confused about why her god said that, but then she notices some dirt and oil coming out from her skin. Even the smell is horrendous. 

"That's impurities coming out of your body" 

Extremely embarrassed "Noo, don't look at me!" She runs to take a bath. The elf just smiles looking at her actions.

"Now that she is capable, I can leave the island in her hands when I go to develop a nation..or if I don't come back…"

…

It's now spring of 2009. It's been two months since Vigilante swings across the street in New York. 

Shield director put importance on the vigilante, V, and wanted his team to make contact. When they found his DNA two months ago, they were excited. 

"There is no matching DNA in any databases. Based on witness description so far, we know he's an early 20s young man, with brown hair. He's also proficient in many languages." 

"Although he does swing around a lot, he comes quickly and goes quickly. None could meet him on the scene. We tried to stage an accident to meet him, but he's very vigilant." 

"There is a high chance he is of Latino descent. In which he got much support from the community, making out investigation harder"

Phil is stressed out. He feels like his hairline is getting higher. As V's base is in New York, he has been going to Kai's house for a while now. 

"Dude, this place is not a hotel" Kai gets in after his day at the clinic.

The agent has been coming by every single day. "Why aren't you the vigilante Kai? That will make my life easier" 

He did suspect Kai is the hero before this. After all, there are some similarities in their character. 

" No result again today? " Kai pours him a drink." No, the kid is a tremendous work. "

When Phil interrogated 'Bonerman' before, he told him everything, in minute detail about it because Shield promises to cure him of his condition. They also search for Kleo, but there's no sign of him. 

They suspected that V has multiple personality disorders. Because of the description of many witnesses, the hypothesis is solidified.

"Sometimes he's cold and ruthless. Sometimes he couldn't stop talking and annoying people. The change is very obvious." 

Phil didn't hide much of his actions from Kai. He had said worse things in his drunken state, which caused Kai to sign an NDA form the next day.

He did give Phil some advice to make the game more interesting, which leads to the agent constantly at his house.

Kai nodded as Coulson was complaining. In his heart, he thought, 'It's about time to end V'

Not because he didn't want Coulson to come by, but because he realizes that the condition of the quest is already fulfilled. 

Side story 6: (I planned this to come out on Mother's day, but I'm not very smart at planning)

In a dark mansion with green roses planted all over the garden, a young lady is lighting up a candle in her room that is located on the top floor of the house. The room is filled with papers and books.

Taking a deep breath, the exquisite blonde young girl with reddish cheeks, and supple red lips on top of her white skin, is opening an empty page of a book with leather covering.

She takes a tool to write, but instead of using the quill and ink that she used to, she takes out a modern-looking ballpen instead.

Her hand moves, to write her story about the craziest 5 years of her life. Even crazier than the times she becomes friends with a rat that lives inside a pumpkin. She continues the plot from the moment she meets her new mother for the first time.

[ When I was eleven, my father remarried. I have come to live with a new stepmother and two stepsisters]

She wrote about her experience, like when her stepmother wakes up after falling from the stairs, she turns into a completely different person. 

The one who wakes up is no longer the one who asks her to cook and clean, making her breathing the life of a maid.

While she is writing, she chuckles when she remembers her interaction with her mother before. In her memory, she runs to check if the fallen mother is okay.

"Evil stepmother! Are you okay??"

"I'm an okay child….Wait did you just call me 'Evil Stepmother' ?"

"She's always doing things like this and then wonders why we are always mean to her. She calls us Evil Stepsisters. Sometimes Ugly Stepsister" One of her sisters interjected.

"But isn't that true?" The eleven-year-old said with innocent eyes. She remembers that time her stepmother smacked her head with a paper fan and said…

"That's rude behavior, Ella. If you feel uncomfortable calling me mother from now on, you can call me Lady Tremaine"

She is engrossed in her memory, of the first time someone disciplined her properly instead of just punishing her even when she didn't know that she did wrong. She didn't realize who came into her room. "ELLA!!"

"ARRHH...Oh, it's you, Anastasia" She collects herself after her sister had spooked her. 

"I've been calling you for a while. What are you doing? Wait... Are you writing a book?"

Anastasia is friendly with her now, something that she thought will never happen in her life. Her sister is also really pretty now and becomes a goddess to many young men in the village.

"Did you feel jealous of Belle again?" Anastasia tries to comfort her. It couldn't be helped that when Lady Tremaine brings them to travel in a horseless carriage, they meet an incredible and smart girl. 

"Nooo! That's not it. Belle is the one who recommended me to write."

While Ella is looking for ideas, her sister helps her in looking back at some incidents they go through before.

"Remember the time with Gaston?" Anastasia asked while giggling.

~ And it's not very hard to see why

No one's slick as Gaston

No one's quick as Gaston

No one's neck is as incredibly thick as Gaston's

For there's no man in town half as manly

Perfect, a pure paragon!

You can ask any Tom, Dick, or Stanley

And they'll tell you whose team they prefer to be on~ 

The bar is singing praises for Gaston, just because he feels disgraced that Bella rejected him. But then Lady Tremaine walks in. And she grabs Gaston's…things… and she says

"No one dumb like Gaston. Have fragile masculinity like Gaston." Lady Tremaine twisted Gaston's family jewel until it was no longer working.

Ella said in a little dissatisfied tone. "I swear Bella keeps following Lady Tremaine around after that like she is in love with her. " She is, with her knowledge.

Anastasia changes the scene. "Or is it when the wolf eats up little red riding hood's grandma"

"Oh granny, what big ears you have," Lady Tremaine says while a beaten-up wolf is stepped on by her."Nothing? Really?"

"Oh granny, what big eyes you have".... " Still nothing huh?"

"Oh granny, if you don't spit out the real granny back from your stomach, all your eyes…ears…nose…fur… will become part of the furniture at my house you hear me?" Lady Tremaine said calmly with a sword on the wolf's neck.

Ella said "I hear the wolf now has become a vegetarian and will run away every time he meets a human"

They both laugh together. Their laughs attracted Drizella, another sister who is in full-body knight armor. The sister who used to be fat is now extremely gallant on the battlefield. She joins in the conversation with her sisters.

"If you want to write about our mother, shouldn't the incident where all of us get slapped should be included?" Drizella says.

This happened at the time they argued about who among them is the most beautiful and will marry a prince. With a slap mark on their cheeks, they are being punished by Lady Tremaine.

"Do you think your value is determined when a man falls in love with you? Is your beauty your only worth?"

After that incident, they start to learn new stuff that they never thought they would do before. Like Drizella. She is now leading a cavalry knight under Grand Duke Tremaine.

Anastasia is now a businesswoman. She holds the position of the number one boutique in all of Babylon.

"Ooh-ooh, you can include when mother changes the Kingdom name from Far Far Away to Babylon." Anatasia keeps suggesting things.

The trio didn't think the name was weird until their mother pointed it out before. Far Far Away, Far Away, Not Near but Far, there is all kind of stupid names for a kingdom.

Ella jots down all their suggestions. 

"Mother has weird moments too," Drizella said."Like the time she slams away the bathroom door and sings 'Somebody once told me, the world is gonna roll me..'

"Or when she meets Maleficent, but she calls her Angelina Jolie," Ella added.

"There is also a time when mother and Maleficent claim to be battling because they are both huffy and sweaty. But the room they were in is the bedroom…" Anastasia unlocked the memory they locked inside their brain, but the trio pretended like it was never said and changed the topic.

Drizella and Anastasia leave Ella on her own. Ella is now working hard on her book. Even if she writes about Lady Tremaine, there is one memory she wanted to only be her. The one where she knows her mother's secret.

It was when the Holy Inquisition from the Catholic church accused Lady Tremaine of being a witch. Ella knows that they only do that because her mother has been giving education to the poor and fights for women's rights.

Her science is also labeled heresy by the church. She is accused of blasphemy of the god. 

Facing the Inquisition, Lady Tremaine is calm even when she is facing them alone. 

"You didn't attack the Ice Queen of the North. Or Snow White's evil stepmother. You chose me because you think I'm easy."

Lady Tremaine looks at the faces of the men. They are holding their laughter. In their heart, they are mocking the dumb woman who offended the church.

"But you're wrong…" Metal armor is summoned around Lady Tremaine. The armor marked with GW-02 flies to the air with its metal wing.

"I am the most evil of the stepmothers" She summons her sword and starts chopping up the Inquisition. She also flies to the Holy See to change the pope later.

Lady Tremaine didn't notice that Ella was hiding in the woods at that time, watching all of it.

At that moment, Ella realizes her mother's secret. 'At first, I thought that she was the fairy godmother. I am not far from the mark.'

The figure that flies around with a magnificent metal wing and shoots fire from her palms keeps playing in Ella's eyes.

'5 years ago, our mother was accepted to heaven. But she didn't want to enter without us.'

'So she came back to the world. As someone who will always take care of us. As an…Angel!'  

Months later in the kingdom. A new book is launched. The title is 'The tale of an Evil Stepmother.' The author: Cinderella.

(Happy Mother's day everyone!)