New Beginning 24: Begin Again

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Yesterday, he was a mere mortal. When the Sun rose, though, there bristled a new (yet somehow familiar) power all across him, and all through him.

Why did his thoughts refer to him in the third-person, as he sat awake in bed? He had to admit, he was curious. Curious, and then suspicious--there were mages afoot.

Witches and wizards, warlocks and sorcerers abounded, where yesterday there were none. Monsters and villains lurked about, snitches and schemers and masterminds. A day's difference had changed him from naive to adept, in more ways than he cared to number at the moment.

His true name was nothing of which to be ashamed, yet perhaps it was better hidden for now. Instead, a pseudonym? Yes, a nom de guerre with some weird and unexplained flourish.

The name lay there on the tip of his tongue, he could feel it. Simple, and confusing, and arrogant and exalted, yet not something to rouse the ire of the Divine--The Penultimate.

It rolled off the tongue like a memory, and with it, an electrical ripple through the entire house, as though responding to a familiar greeting. He stepped out of bed, stepped forward, and to his pleasant surprise, his foot met with thin air. He stepped again, and the second foot took its place beside the first.

His breath was shallow, he was so excited. He was floating mid-air, but there was more--he wished it, and moved forward; he thought it, and moved back. Floating was nice, but with barely a whim, he was sort of flying--at least as much as the space in his room allowed. Still--flying!

He had to see just how far he could go. His parents--he couldn't perceive them in the house, through the ether of which his mind was made newly aware. They had gone to work? Okay, that worked. They had told him to get out more, anyhow. In this case, he might book himself a self-guided flight over Orlando? Of course, he would leave--

The note was already filling itself out on his desk. It finished, popped up, drifted through the air, and alighted on his pillow.

Who could argue with that logic?

The Penultimate shrugged, feeling a bit pleased with himself. That settled that. Drifting effortless down the hall, His clothes changed into the usual--superhero shirt, jeans, sneakers--and the cats were pleasantly surprised to hear food pouring from nowhere into their bowls.

His hair and teeth were perfectly brushed by the time he reached the door, and he surprised himself with a snack in each hand--bag of pretzels and bottle of tea, the usual. The door opened, clicked to the locked position.

He rose up into the air, took a last look back as the door closed, and was off into the sky, for a swim in the stratosphere. Perhaps there it would be easier to concentrate, so he could contact the others.

[Marvelous Miscreant]

[The Narrator]

*A light show appears, exploding into a brilliant display of colors, rainbows, and awesomeness.  The points of light swirl around before before spelling out into the atmosphere, "The Narrator", and forming into a silhouette of a guy.

The lights disappeared as a man, 6'3 appeared.

"It's I the Narrator.  I would reintroduce myself, to really "Begin Again" but meh.  I figure, if you don't know me yet, you'll learn of me as you read....I mean experience me.  Long story short, I am a reality bender, I narrate, and it would be foolish to underestimate me..."

 

[Myself]

What AM I? I wonder this today, as yesterday, I was nothing more than human. Today, the very nature of reality is slightly more malleable to me.

It began as I woke from a dream, a dream of flight. The dream was so real, in fact, that as I awoke I truly believed I had such an ability. I thought about it, finding the basic reality of gravitation to loosen it's grip on me as I gently levitated above my matress, lifting my blanket.

This will take some geting used to.

[Marvelous Miscreant]

It had only been a few hours since the baffling escape of a prisoner from a  prison in the middle of Texas, but already the strange escapee was making headlines. Anyone who happened to be tuned in to the Eleven O' Clock news was surprised with the breaking story of a daring (and somewhat overzealous) bank heist.

-------------------------------------------------

"This just in! The Point Meyer Bank in Houston Texas was robbed just minutes ago by what witness claim was a single man. The man was identified as the infamous thief, Marv Miles, who made headlines last year when he robbed several high profile CEOs accused of embezzling. Miles was imprisoned at Iron Row Correctional Facility, but escaped earlier this afternoon. Miles reasons for committing such a high profile crime just hours after his escape is perhaps the least baffling piece of this crime.

Witnesses claim, Miles shrugged off several bullets during a brief struggle with the on duty security officer, before ripping the bank's vault open with his bare hands. Some claimed Miles was equipped with large crystal gauntlets or gloves. While still others claimed Miles was a vengeful angel.

It's unclear what happened during the heist as all video surveillance was shorted out shortly before the heist. Though officers on the scene suspect a hallucinogen was likely involved. This has police concerned over what Miles is planning  and where he'll strike next.

That's all on this story for now, tune in at 12 for an update on...."

-------------------------------------------

Marv Miles turned away from the Television, clicking his tongue in annoyance. The reporter continued to drone on about some inane story.

"They always try to paint me as the bad guy. It's bullshit. Sure, maybe I stole a little bit of dosh, but that Bank's been stealing money for years. I just gave 'em a little taste of their own medicine."

Marv paused to kick a small stone from his path.

"Besides, I needed the start-up funds. I'm back in circulation, and I've got plans!"

[Celadon's Penultimate]

"--infamous thief, Marv Miles--"

After drifting in the atmosphere for some time, invisible so as not to garner undesired media attention, that transmission struck the Penultimate's attention, and he tuned in.

"--shrugged off several bullets--"

"--crystal gauntlets--"

Marv? The words immediately fell from his lips, as though they had a mind of their own, "Déjà entendu..."

Had he known a Marvin? A Marv? A faint sadness crossed the Penultimate's demeanor, as though recalling a long-lost friend. Unlikely as it was that the Penultimate knew anyone who had ever pursued a life of crime, there was a distinct tug at his chest, as his mind gleaned the radio transmission from the air. Now was just as good a time as any to test the extent of the Penultimate's new and exhilarating powers. He relaxed his body, until little to no tension remained; where a moment ago, he was lighter than air, he was now growing heavier with a building power within.

Letting go of invisibility to concentrate on a new effort, The Penultimate's form grew brighter, warmer, hotter, until he blazed red, even white-hot. He tilted forward, assumed the Superman position, and blasted off. Speeding with Mach force and fierce luminescence to rival a shooting star, he tuned out the external surround sound of high-speed flight.

"Marv...Marvin? Marvis? Marvolo?" The Penultimate muttered the names under his breath, with growing frustration, "Marvel? No, that's silly--who would name their child M-Marv-Marvelous? What? Marvelous...?"

His subconscious seemed to agree; a slight headache-behind-the-eyes feeling began to build smack dab in the center of the Penultimate's forehead as he uttered the name. There, with it, was a newfound sense of direction.

Having harnessed the homing power after a hundred miles or so, a grin crossed the Penultimate's face. He swooped lower, turning invisible just in time to avoid an oncoming airplane, and caught sight of a sign and flag that said he had reached his destination. At least, he had reached the broad range of his destination--Texas--and that was good enough for the moment.

When his feet alighted on the ground, the Penultimate reappeared with tiny Texas flags on either side of his sneakers. His T-shirt had changed to feature some of Marvel heroes The Hulk and The Thing opposing the villains The Juggernaut and The Rhino, with the logo, 'Texas Does It Bigger'. For some reason, he now had a hankering for steak.

Cravings would have to wait, though. If the Penultimate wasn't mistaken, there was this strange Marv character, just up ahead.

[Philote]

<English Class>

"Nick?" "Here."

Jordan? "Here."

David?" "Here."

"[Redacted]"

"....."

"[Redacted.exchange]?"

"Uh...Oh, is someone named Element here?"

I blinked for a moment as I raised my hand. Had I heard correctly? What was that first thing she said? I set down my copy of Ender's Game and pull myself out of my daydreams to look around and take things in again.

Element? Was that my name? Had it been my name just moments before? It was just on the edge of my memory, but I could not grasp it, and this new name felt so right.

"May I be excused for a moment?"

--------------------------------------------------

I take a stroll down to the bathroom to splash some water into my face.

Looking into the mirror, I study the details of my face, trying to figure out what was wrong, what was different from just an hour before. I bend down, rub my face in the water, and lean back up to take another look when suddenly the world just glitches?

"AHHHHH!?"

--------------------------------------------------

Got to get away.....got to get away.....got to get away

Hoodie pulled up, head down, hands in pocket. Just play it cool and make it back home to see if this will go away.

Just have....

To get....

Crash

"Hey, watch where you're going"

I sit in silence, eyes wide, hoodie flopped off as the student walks away.

He had not noticed a thing? I had gone full phantasmal, a real dream walker, and he had not noticed a thing. I was practically see through, a wisp.

I got up and rushed the rest of the way out of the school. I think I could survive skipping a day after all the weirdness that was suddenly happening, besides, I had the feeling that I would not be missed.

[Zaleramancer]

?????, ?????

He was dreaming.

That was not, in and of itself, unusual. People dream all the time; he was a.. people.

He couldn't really remember. Everything was strange and fuzzy. He was walking.. no floating, drifting through the air as if it were water. This was not a place he knew, it was some house- no, a huge mansion. It looked old and run down, with cobwebs hanging and cracked windows.

The dreamer didn't like looking out the windows. They held unsettling sights. A world was fractured out there, fuzzy like static with shards of strange places and people spinning through it.

He had been floating for a while, he felt. Through the halls and doors and up stairs and down stairs. Around and around. It was never the same; the dreamer was lost.

Nothing was familiar; he felt like it should be. Something had changed.

He drifted into a large atrium and paused before a great grandfather clock. It stood out from the rest of the room, from the old oaken walls and the dark oil paintings because it alone was untouched by the decrepit age of this place. No cobwebs, no warped wood, no broken glass.

It punctuated the silence of the room with its steady ticks. The clock read eleven fifty nine and fifty seconds.

Fifty one, fifty two, fifty three..

He drifted upside down before the clock, watching the second hand race.

Fifty seven, fifty eight, fifty nine..

Midnight...

A desert somewhere, morning

It was the very first moments of the morning, before the angry glare of the sun had boiled away the night's dew. A small lizard (Phrynosoma platyrhino) crawled slowly across the sand in search of a nice rock. Every so often it would lap up a bead of dew, savoring the sweetness of the water.

The great-heat was rising above; the lizard looked up at the rising warmth and- and-

It saw the sun Helios-Sol; a ocean of fire so wide it could swallow a thousand thousand mountains; heat so great it burns the building blocks of matter.

A forge greater than a world and hotter than hells; bigger than species and thoughts and minds, a desert of plasma so incomparably vast no one could cross it a million life times.

It saw the world spin backwards, the worlds turn to cosmic dust swirling around a collapsing nebula. It saw them flatten and spin out to nothingness. Years and years lost meaning without Sol to guide them. Dust danced across the cosmos in reverse; expanded nebulae collapsed backwards into the first stars, then faded away into nothing. The cosmos shrank like an inverted explosion, collapsing into a single moment.

A time without time, a place without space, a single point that held all that ever would be, a heat so great all the laws of the world melted into one.

A moment passed, a unit of the planck, a time as small as time can be.

...tick...

The lizard stared into the sun and realized he wasn't a lizard at all. This shape was wrong, this mind was wrong.

He bent and grew. Memories came. Bipedal, acute binocular vision, warm-blood, developed brain.

Good hands, opposable thumbs.

He stood upright, with hands and legs and eyes unlike a lizard. The dreamer looked down at the sand. He remembered the infinity of fire, the single burning moment. He spoke a word; a patch of sand became molten and cooled slowly to glass.

The new person looked at himself. His face had flattened, with distinct nose and mouth. Eyes were arranged for binocular vision; external ears had appeared on the sides of his head.

It was bizarre. He was.. (Homo Sapiens Sapiens) ? Was that right? He could not remember. He brought scaled hands to scaled face; wondered if his reconstruction was off.

There was no knowing really. He needed outside perspectives. That was important.

The nameless dreamer looked to the sky. A memory told him that the position of the sun and smell of the wind indicated the cardinal directions. He picked one of them at random and began to walk.

He was bound to find someone eventually.  

[Marvelous Miscreant]

Marv stopped and slowly leaned against the brick face of the nearest building. Carefully, he glanced around the semi-busy street. To an outside observer, he appeared to simply be taking in his surroundings. He was, in truth, focusing on the man that had suddenly appeared several blocks ahead of him.

He was a tall fellow with rich dark skin. He was dressed in sneakers and a t-shirt that betrayed a somewhat geeky taste in fashion. He had almost seemed to appear from nowhere. Perhaps it had been a trick of Marv's mind, perhaps he'd imagined it. He'd already considered the possibility he was not the only person of planet earth that had miraculously developed powers. No, that would be too fortuitous. Was this another person with powers? It was possible, then again it was equally possible he'd simply not noticed the man before.

Either way it didn't matter. The man was looking straight at him, staring even. Did he recognize Marv from his mugshot. It had been broadcast all over the news, it was possible. Or perhaps he was interested in Marv for some other reason. Again, it didn't really matter. He was paying far too much attention and Marv had no intention of being caught again. He needed to get away quickly.

Nonchalantly, Marv reached down and tightened the laces of his new black combat boots. He'd stolen them, along with a pair of cargo pants, a black t-shirt, and a floral print Hawaiian shirt, to replace his prison coveralls. It wasn't the most subtle disguise, but it was better than the bright neon orange of his former clothing.

With his boots laced tightly, Marv straightened up, took a deep breath, and sprinted like a maniac across the street, dodging several slower pedestrians and disappearing down a narrow side street. The mysterious onlooker would have a hard time catching him if that was his goal...

[Tsubasa & Wen Tien]

On the streets, people went about their business as suddenly the wind picked up around one individual, blasting several poor individuals away from them. As people stared in amazement, fire began to surround the figure before itself being enveloped by a membrane of opaque water and layers of light and darkness covered the ovoid.

After awhile, as people got over their surprise, cell-phones came out and began to snap pictures or 9-1-1 was dialed for a few poor individuals who had been badly hurt when thrown to the side by the burst of wind. As soon as the firetrucks arrived on site, well before the ambulances and police because that was where the calls had ended up first, the ovoid suddenly began to glow before falling apart, throwing yet more individuals into the ground, cars, and other people.

The ovoid opened up with the darkness falling to the ground first, blinding several people as though a flashbang with the layer of light flying off next. The layers of fire and water opened more gracefully into the form of a lotus as the female form hidden within. She slowly rose up revealing a black sailor fuku, long black hair in a ponytail, Asiatic features a pair of shortswords strapped along the back of her waist, crisscrossing over one another, and a guardless katana on the left side of her waist, its design reminiscent of grace, ruthlessness and power in one.

As the crowd watched the woman began to move in a simple manner, going through the motions of various martial arts and becoming more and more profound as she went on. Finally, as the police arrived, stared, and started to pull out their firearms, the woman quietly, yet weirdly audible in the middle of all the noise, stated, "I wonder whether or not I have been reborn in the same Earth as before. Was Sensei ever born in this world? Has my family ever been here? I should find that out first and foremost."

Then before the eyes of the crowd and emergency personnel, she silently disappeared, only to reappear on top of a nearby rooftop, out of sight, sighing "I can at least still perform Instant Movement, but what else can I do? I, Suzue Baruch, shall need to locate others with great powers... Ikkimashou."

The figure silently disappeared yet again.

[The Mediocre Gatsby]

New York City.


The lights. It's always the lights that get the tourists. "It's just like the movies!" "They're so pretty!" But most people don't get that the lights are just one big distraction. With all those pretty lights, who's going to notice all the darkness in the streets, the alleyways. The simple and sad answer is that nobody ever notices the dark, and when nobody notices a place, the sad and simple truth of it is that evil tends to take root there.

 "Help! HEEELLP!! DADDY! MOMMY!!!" I heard a high pitched voice scream from an alley. "Quiet! It'll all be over soon!" Said a deeper, raspier voice. "HELP! HELP! FIRE!!" The higher voice said again.

 As I ran towards the screaming, I remembered that after a certain time of night, if someone was yelling fire, nothing was actually burning. It's a basic self defense technique, if you yell "rape" nobody is going to run towards it. "None of my business" they think. But if someone says "Fire", then people's stuff has a chance of getting destroyed. The selfishness of it all disgusts me. Which is probably why, even through the metal of my Brass Knuckle, and the padding on my gloves, I could feel the fucker's jaw shatter.

 "What the hell do you think you're DOING?!" I yelled. My helmet had a set of amateur voice modulators. Nothing too fancy, but it was enough to stop my voice from being recognized as I yelled.

 "TRYING TO FUCKING TOUCH, LITTLE GIRL LIKE THAT?!" I screamed, knocking the man down onto the ground. Normally, I would have stopped on any other petty purse-snatcher or bank robber. But this coward was about to do unthinkable things to a girl that couldn't be more than 10 years old. I looked down at the pathetic excuse for a human being by my boots. I aimed a kick towards his face, and watched as one of his teeth flew out across the alley.

 I walked over to the child standing by a dumpster. I took a knee and got onto her eye level.

 "Are you okay? Did he touch you anywhere?" The little girl looked scared. I realized that I still had my helmet on, voice mods and all. "Oh, wow! Totally forgot this thing was on. It's okay, I don't actually look like this. Can you keep a secret?" I asked her. She nodded quickly, still looking scared of the stranger in front of her. I reached for a set of clips just under my chin on my helmet. It wasn't anything special, just an old motorcycle helmet, spray painted to have a sort of ambiguous design in the dark. Nothing definite, to play on the natural fear of the unknown. I took off the helmet and shook out my hair.

 "See? I'm just a guy." I said, in my normal, slightly nasally voice. "Here, wanna hold the helmet? You can try it on if you want." I told the girl. She seemed to calm down as she held my helmet in her hand, putting it on her head, and hearing what she sounded lot like with her voice distorted. While she played with the helmet, I whipped my backpack off from my back and began to change back into civilian clothing. Replacing the leather jacket I wore for a simple blue hoodie, and swapping the steel-toed combat boots I had just used to knock the perv's teeth out for a pair of converse sneakers. Luckily, I had managed to keep the jeans I wore clear of any visible blood, so no need to change out of those. I removed the brass knuckles and gloves and shoved them in my backpack as well. From another pocket on my bag, I pulled out a pair of glasses.

 "C'mon sweetie. Let's find a police officer to get you home to Mom and Dad." I told her, taking my helmet off of her head, and stuffing it in my back. Any other city, and people would question why some college-aged kid would be carrying around a backpack meant to carry full camera equipment and more, but a simple flash of an NYU badge not only explained the bag away, but keeps prying eyes away.

 

 I took the little girl to the nearest precinct, where her parents were already waiting for her. Lucy, that was her name, thanked me for bringing her back to her Mom and Dad. She also pinky promised that "she can keep a secret". Her parents tried to give me some kind of reward for bringing their daughter back safely, but I turned it down. I don't do this stuff for money. I do it to know that the streets of the city I love stay safe.

 By day, I'm just Lewis. A Junior at NYU studying film, and working on an original script. But at night, I become something bigger than myself. Something more brutal than just a college kid. Crime and scumbags plague this city like a virus. So I become the city's antibody, to eliminate the sickness.

 I become it's Vengeance

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Blinking with a curious spark in his eye, the Penultimate raised an eyebrow and tilted his head at the sight of the man, this Marvelous Mr. Miles, taking off as though he had just been tagged in some child's game. In truth, he had hoped for a more subtle meeting--perhaps an experimental attempt at telepathic rapport from afar--but this was good, too.

To start, there was a bit of a light jog, but when it seemed the mystery man had no intention of stopping, the Penultimate dropped all pretense and took off with exhilarating celerity, such that he left a powerful gust in his wake.

[The Junkyard Cat]

WARNING PERSONAL TIMELINES CORRUPTED: RETRIEVING FRAGMENTS...

ERROR FRAGMENTS DISPURSED... SUPPORT INITIALIZING


LOST FRAGMENTS: REIN, RYNTH, DEXTRA, SCRATCH, VAGRANT, ILLUMIA, WAYWARD, JENTI...

RETRIEVED FRAGMENTS: CABANILLA, ALVINA, GARTH...

INSECURE LINK BETWEEN THE FRAGMENTS IDENTIFIED. THE ARCHIVE IS NOW UNDER LOCKDOWN.........

SUPPORT COMMAND ISSUED: PROVIDING SUPPORT TO LOST FRAGMENTS...

SEARCHING......

__________________________________

In Arizona, the town with the most Sun in the world a loud bang rings out in the desert. A pair of two individuals are shooting a bit of target practice. "Hey Rynth... How long do you think we'll be stuck here?" Rynth shrugs to Rein eating a bag of chips as they continue their break from the town. They had been stuck here for months something was familiar about this place but for all intense purposes it felt more like an earth someone told them about. News of an outlaw of sorts being in Texas was their next destination as a gate of shadows opened up to an apartment within that state. "Glad you still can do that... Walking everywhere would had sucked."

[Marvelous Miscreant]

No good. Running wasn't cutting it. Marv's pursuer was gaining on him. Fast. Inhumanely Fast. At least now his suspicions had been confirmed. It was painfully obvious now he wasn't going to be able to escape on speed alone, but that was fine. There were other ways to lose a tail.

With expert grace, Marv quickly changed tactics, altering his course down a series of narrow and confusing alleyways. He'd used this town to lay low before, he knew it's intricacies like the back of his hand. A quick right, two lefts, another right, a brief delay as he pushed his way past a hooded bystander, and there it was, an old warehouse long abandoned to fall apart on its own.

Marv shouldered open one of it's rusted metal side doors and slammed it closed behind him. With a quick motion he wrenched the door knob off with a single crystal encased fist and bent one of the hinges out of alignment, rendering the door all but impassable.

"Don't know if that'll stop him or not," Marv muttered to himself before turning to sprint across the empty warehouse.

[Zaleramancer]

The Desert -> Texan City

Sand, Sand, Sand.

The man-once-lizard continued his path, leaving a trail of molten glass footprints in his wake.

The desert was large. The desert was hot.

He had found a large piece of cloth. His memories said Picnic; were then silent on what a "picnic" was. He had wrapped it around himself like a shroud.

The sand gave way to a road of black stone his memories called asphalt.

The road was long; the shrouded man left a trail of cooling footprints behind him.

There was a city on the distance, surrounded by greenness and dwellings. His memories whispered the word Suburb as he approached.

He wondered what that was.

[Philote]

I made my way down some back alleys. Just because the few people I had stumbled into had not noticed my sudden transformation did not mean that I would not soon be noticed. Probably by a being of phenomenal cosmic power, knowing my luck.

As my luck would have it, one punk* ends up knocking his way into me and rushing past in some mad flight. I pick myself up from being sprawled on the ground, just in time for another hooligan** to run into me from behind, knocking my hoodie off and revealing my phantasmal face.

"Watch where you two are running, would you? And...uh... pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" I say trying to cover up again.

*Marv
**Wulf

[Mik_Hael]

In a dimly lit apartment a young man slept in bed before suddenly sitting upright very quickly eyes snapped open. He glanced around the room for several seconds expressionless before a very annoyed and somewhat disgusted expression flashed over his face. The next instant his fist clenched and the entire room caved in on itself, crushing everything inside.

.......................................................

A few hours later the same man was walking down the street of a city heading towards a nearby patent office. He was wearing an all black suit, and a mask that covered the entirety of his face. After confidently strolling through the entrance and walking up to the counter of a somewhat surprised and nervous patent clerk."Umm...Hello sir how can I help you today."

"I'd like to register a few patents." the man said cheerily before placing a suitcase onto the counter and opening it to reveal hundreds of pages of design documents.

"Uhh, sir this seems to be quite the amount, are you sure that..."

"Quite so, I'm starting a company you see, and I just figured that before I do anything else I should secure my inventions legaly,and please. Call me Todd."

[Celadon's Penultimate]

By now, the chase was getting interesting. Perhaps it was best that the two meet this way, the Penultimate thought. This Marv character was trying hard to throw him off his trail, and with such impressive ingenuity and tactic, that the Penultimate grew excited at the hope that the confrontation would be well worth the pursuit.

A quick right, two lefts, another right, the Penultimate lost Marv for a bit, but sure enough, his tracking sense was getting stronger. Picking up the pace, the Penultimate offered a quick apology, as he bowled over a hooded man who seemed to have just gotten up from getting knocked over mere moments ago.

Still, the Penultimate was having a heck of a time adjusting to his inhuman speed and lightning reflexes, and it got much easier to trust his tracking sense when, at last, he ducked around a final bend and stumbled upon what looked to be an abandoned warehouse. The door had been warped and cranked all out of place--Marv had to be seeking refuge in there.

Walking up to the door slow and cautious, the Penultimate listened to the door for a short while. And then, when he heard what he needed to hear, his form grew not invisible, but blurry. He stepped forward, into the door, and with his new Sonic Form, resonated with the metal until the door simply shook itself apart.

When *that* was done, his form became something human again, and he cupped a hand to his mouth, calling out playfully, "Oh, Marv? Olly, olly, oxen free!"

[Marvelous Miscreant]

"So much for that plan," Marv muttered to himself in frustration. He could hear the tell-tale sounds on metal ratting against metal as the door he'd come through shook itself apart. As the door final broke and came crashing to the ground in a final cacophonous burst, Marv stealthily slid out of view, crouching behind a pallet of decaying boxes. Marv's breath slowed as he listened intently.

"Oh, Marv? Olly, olly, oxen free!"

The man's voice echoed around the mostly empty warehouse. Clearly he was confident. Which meant Marv was nearly out of options. Running hadn't worked and his pursuer had demonstrated a plethora of abilities that no doubt made him more than a match for Marv, at least for now. Time for bargaining.

"That was a little too dramatic, don't you think?" Marv called from his hiding place before quickly adding, "Who the hell are you? And what do you want from me?"

[Celadon's Penultimate]

"I am called The Penultimate." came the reply, "And if you really wanted to know what I wanted, I think you have the power to find out for yourself."

Hoping not to startle Marv too much further, the Penultimate figured that perhaps it was best to not just pop up at his side. And so, foregoing the highly tempting option of teleportation, he began a slow casual stroll among the tools and scraps and various assorted other junk.

Only just wishing for it, the Penultimate heard the start of music, an aura bearing forth his favorite hip-hop playlist.

"You like Drake, Marv? I'm taking requests...", he kicked a stray tin can, and continued about his way, "Somehow, you don't strike me as a Li'l Wayne kinda guy..."