C A P T A I N M A R V E L
C A P T A I N M A R V E L
New York, Back Alley
Rallying the last of his strength, Bailey balled up his fist and went for that final last ditch attack. Maybe it was futile, but he had to try at least something against these bastards. He let out a howl as he launched himself from his knees into a mighty leap... Only to go all of 4 feet forward and landing in a puddle. Everything was suddenly quiet... Wait, why wasn't he in pain anymore, I mean, apart from the mildly scraped knee from landing on asphalt. He rolled over and looked around. Everything was gone. Everyone was gone. That van blocking the Alley, the goons attacking the old man, the old man himself. Bailey lay flat on his back for a second, hands balled up into fists hitting himself in the head with his balled palms as tears began slowly forming.
Was he REALLY that pathetic? So insignificant that he didn't even deserve to be killed? Not even worth taking with them to study for his power? He wiped away the tears and curled his legs in, trying to kip-up, but the maneuver failed and he only succeeded in splashing more fowl puddle-water around. Must have been more damaged than he though, but again, he wasn't in any pain. He looked to his arm... Hang on, a bullet had ripped through that only a few minutes ago. His healing was good, but not That good... Or was it? Had he mutated again? Was it maybe something to do with danger? Well, there was no point in sitting here, feeling sorry for himself. He rolled onto his side and pushed himself up to his feet, looking around to grab his mask that he had lost in the fight. He couldn't see it... Wait, they took his mask, but not him? Maybe they had taken samples of his blood. God knows there was enough left around after that fight. This was bad. In any case, he needed to get back to F.E.A.S.T. to plan his next move, go after Lord's men.
He reached out his hand and pressing his fingers into his palm to quickly sling a Web to swing back, but nothing happened. He looked down at his wrists and didn't see his Organic Webspinners. Panic quickly set in, running to the wall, he pressed his palms to the wall and tried to climb, but they simple scraped along the coarse brick. He balled his fist up to punch the wall, before realising that, if he had REALLY lost all of his powers, then breaking his hand would definitely make the situation worse. He saw a discarded metal pipe near him. Running over to it, he grabbed it and tried to bend it. Nothing. Not even a peep.
"Oh yeah..." another tear formed in the corner of his eye.
"Oh thats perfect." He broke down to his knees. Now he was alone in this world but without his powers. Now he wasn't even The Amazing Spider-Boy.
"WHATS EVEN THE POINT?!?!?!? YOU WANT ME TO BE SPIDER-BOY!!! THEN YOU TAKE IT ALL AWAY!" He screamed into the aether. He wiped a small drip of snot that ran from his nose on his sleeve. Feeling slightly better from screaming. He then got to his feet, before looking around. Right, he needed his civilian clothes... he looked up to the nearby high-rise he had left his backpack with his clothes webbed to.
"Darnit, how am i supposed to grt up there?" he looked around and saw a clothes line out of one of the windows above him, a fairly large hoodie hung. Bailey remembered promising his mom that he'd never steal... But he couldn't go out in his supersuit. Alright, grab the hoodie, go back to F.E.A.S.T. and grab some actual clothes, then bring it straight back. Thats borrowing, not stealing. Climbing carefully up the Fire-Escape, he looked into the window to see that nobody was home. He pulled the hoodie over to him and wriggled into it. It was at least 6 sizes too large for him, but any port in a storm. To make matters worse, it wasn't even a New York Giants one.
"Ewwww, Gotham Knights, he sighed. With the hem around his knee's, he took a deep breath, pulled the hood over his head, rolled the sleeves up so he actually had his hands free and walked out onto the busy streets.
He was a small boy, powerless in the middle of New York. An oppressive regime was out to get him and everyone he knew. It was like walking through the lion enclosure of a Safari Park wearing a suit of bacon. That being said... Everything seemed less on edge than a few minutes ago. After an hour of walking, he made it to Time Square, all of the electronic billboards flashing and glaring brightly. Adverts for various drinks, broadway shows... That's... Not right. Where's the big one that's always playing anti-mutant Propaganda? This world was too... Too normal. It's like it was trying to lull him into a false sense of security. Walking past a newspaper dispenser, he looked into it.
"President Cuts The First Ground Of New Subway Route" was the headline and the picture was... Who the heck is that? It's definitely the President, wearing the seal, smiling for the camera, the headline calls him it, but that wasn't... He looked around frantically. This place, this world, where was he? He set off at a run towards F.E.A.S.T. But only made it about a block before he had to stop, panting and weezing heavily. Oh yeah, powers were ABSOLUTELY gone. With his Spider-Powers, he could have easily run from one side of this city to the other without breaking a sweat, but now... No matter. He took a few deep breaths, before continuing to walk. Every person that passed him almost gave him a heart attack, like any one of them was about to go "GOTCHA!!!" And grab him and shove him into a black van and before he knew it, he'd be on Madam Monstrosities slab again. As he walked, he suddenly realized something. His tongue moved about his mouth, wait, he still had his fangs. He walked up to a nearby window, grabbed his lip and lifted it, opening his jaw to look at them. Well, they were still there. At least if he needed to, he might be able to paralyze people. Oh yeah, that'd be REAL heroic.
"LOOK, UP IN THE SKY! IS IT A BIRD? IS IT A PLANE? NO, THE AMAZING BITING BOY! WITH THE ABILITY TO BITE PEOPLE, HE VALIANTLY SAVES THE DAY AND SENDS BAD GUYS TO GET RABIES JABS"
He sighed deeply. He REALLY did not want to start crying again, but boy was this making it REALLY hard not to. Finally making it to F.E.A.S.T. he walked up the steps, past several homeless people. Making it in, he looked around and walked over to the front desk. He didn't recognize the woman behind the desk. Not Old Lady Parker.
"Ummm... Excuse me? My name is Bailey Briggs. I'm checking in." He said. The woman leaned across the desk to look at him in his ridiculously oversized Gotham Knights hoodie.
"Bailey Briggs, give me a second..." She typed away on the computer for a second.
"Alright, first time registering, i see." Bailey's heart went through the floor at this point.
"N... N-No, i live here." He felt his heart thumping loudly in his chest.
"Me and my Mom lived here before..." The tears began flowing again and he put his head down so she couldn't see.
"Oh dear... Are you sure? Because we have no record of any Briggs ever being here before. Did your mother use a different name? Was she... Maybe trying to make sure your father didn't find you?" Bailey didn't even know his father.
"Don't you remember when Madam Monstrosity attacked F.E.A.S.T. and took a bunch of us away to turn into animal-people?" The woman behind the desk, at this point, simply smiled and he could tell from her face that she was about to humour him.
"Oh, i get it, you're one of those Hero-player kids." She winked at him. Bailey didn't want to cry again, not in front of someone like this, but there wasn't much else he could think to do. At this point, he ran into the main building, looking around, a bunch of the homeless that he recognized were here.
"Jasper, don't you remember me? It's me, Bailey?" The man looked at him confused. He ran over to an older lady.
"Penelope, don't you remember that cake mom managed to scrounge together for your birthday?" Another confused eyebrow. He ran towards the small room that he had been staying in, only to look in and see a family, 2 parents and one older kid in there, clearly struggling at the time, just as his mother had been. None of his stuff was there. That picture of his mother and him on that trip to the Everglades... He broke down, tried not to cry, then fell over onto his side and pulled the hoodie entirely over his head, letting out a rather undignified series of noises as frustrations were let out into the hoodie, most likely the same amount of tears that had been wept into it when the Knights lost the Superbowl to the Bronco's 2 years ago.
"Yo..." A voice called out. Slowly, Bailey emerged from his fabric cocoon and looked up to see that the older kid in the room had opened the door and was looking down at him. He rubbed his eyes and looked up at her. She was a good couple of years older than him.
"Hey, kid." She said, looking down at him.
"What's with the waterworks?" Bailey slowly pulled the hoodie back into a comfortable position, before looking up at her.
"I'm..." He couldn't even think of what to say to her.
"Name?" She asked. He took a deep breath, then sighed.
"My name is Bailey Briggs and... I'm all alone..." He replied. The girl looked down at his costume and pulled the hoodie off of him, he sat there in his spider-costume.
"Big fan of Spider-Man?" She asked.
"Yeah, i know him." Bailey slowly wiped tears on the sleeve, cheering up a little since someone was actually talking to him as a human being. He pointed to the Spider symbol on his costume.
"He kinda stole my gig though." The girl turned around and said something in a language he didn't understand to her parents.
"Alright, Bailey. The name's Christina. Come with me."****
Bailey and Christina sat on a wall just across from F.E.A.S.T. outside, Bailey explaining everything to this complete stranger. She never interrupted him, save for a few clarifications here and there, never questioned the validity of his story, taking it at face value.
-and so after i tried to save the old man... Everything went weird and then i woke up and i didn't have my powers. I tried to come home to F.E.A.S.T., but nobody remembers who i am and you and your folks are now living in my room.""So... You need to find the weirdo's who stole the old man, stole the President and changed everyone's memories around to remember nothing of it. And they REALLY had Mutant Death Squads roaming the streets?" She exhaled loudly.
"Heavy..." She got to her feet.
"Well, Mr Briggs, you spin a good yarn." Bailey hung his head.
"You don't believe me, do you?" He hung his head. She bent down and picked his chin up to look her in the face.
"Dude. You are 11 years old. I know a couple of guys who live over on West 50th who are kicking themselves because they couldn't make that kinda stuff up." She smiled.
"Alright, we call one of the heroes. Maybe Batman? Ask him to help you track down those guys, then you get your powers back, rescue that old man and bing, bang, boom, maybe i could get some powers to and be, like, your sidekick? She asked. Bailey smiled and laughed a little.
"You wouldn't want to be the Hero?" He asked.
"Oh, heck no, too much limelight. Plus, if the fanfic boards are anything to go by, the sidekicks are the ones who ALL The girls are after." Bailey raised an eyebrow.
"Don't you mean boys?" He asked, so innocently that it didn't occur to her that he may not understand what he was implying.
"Those too." She grinned sinisterly.
"Alright, we'll need a couple of high powered torches, a butt-load of rubber bands a-" At that point there was an explosion nearby. Looking around, they saw massive plumes of smoke coming from the next street, the squeal of tyres ringing out.
"Ah crud, another Supervillain attack. Best get back inside." She sighed. She looked both ways, before reaching her hand out for him to grab so that they could cross back to F.E.A.S.T. Bailey looked to see this big, brutish creature stomping along the end of the street.
"Christina, get inside!" He called, before instinctively reaching for his hood, not finding it. He grunted. Suddenly, a fist knocked on his head.
"Yo, Bailey. If you remember, you don't have powers anymore!" She grabbed him. Bailey looked at the great beast, then at Christina and then at F.E.A.S.T. itself.
"If i don't lure it away, then who will?""SPIDER-MAN! OR LITERALLY ANYONE WHO'S NOT A LITTLE KID!" She yelled. She then pointed at F.E.A.S.T.
"Alright, you go to Safety, i'll lure it away." She ordered, before running off down the street towards the beast. Bailey ran after her, of course, she was taller and faster than him. Getting close to the creature, Christina found herself barely able to even approach it, let along try to distract it from the searing heat pouring off of it. The Troll smashed both of it's arms into a building. Christina moved away from the falling rubble, waving her arms and trying to get its attention.
HEY, BASTARD TORCH!!!" She yelled. The Troll heard the intent in her voice and looked down.
"Oh, i did not think this one through." She gulped, panicing, she backed up as fast as she could, falling onto her backside. Suddenly, the large hand reached for her. The heat searing into her skin, she felt like she was about to burst into flames. Then respite, even the slightest amount, as she saw the sillouhette of Bailey run in front of her.
Bailey wasn't sure what this would accomplish. He wasn't even sure if this would make any difference. But he knew that he needed to do something to save her. Time seemed to move slowly as he did this. It was like he had his Spider-Senses back. That flaming beast seemed to stop dead. He looked down at his hands. He looked back at Christina dumbstruck.
"Ummm... Christina? He waved a hand and she didn't respond. Turning, he saw one of the doors to the buildings next to him glowed with a golden light. He looked at the Fire Troll. He moved towards it, but even if time had stopped, the heat hadn't.
"Bailey..." A voice came from the door. He turned and looked at the door.
"Bailey..." He slowly walked towards it. As he pushed on the door, he suddenly found himself in the middle of space. Black, glowing void before him, only a rock beneath his feet. 5 thrones sat before him, 6 large statues. He recognized several of them. Hercules, with that lion skin wrapped around him. Atlas holding up the heavens. Zeus the king of the gods... The others he didn't recognize. Atop the middle throne in front of him was an old man, glowing white hair, glowing white eyes and a glowing lightning bolt on his chest.
"Ummm... Excuse me, who are you?" Bailey asked the old man. The old man slowly got to his feet, he slammed his staff into the ground and suddenly, he took on the form that Bailey recognized all too well.
"YOU ESCAPED!!!" Bailey yelled, excitedly. He ran up to the old man and hugged him. The man was rather taken aback by this.
OHHH, I WAS SO WORRIED, I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT THEY WOULD DO TO YOU, I WAS SO AFRAID I HAD FAILED!!!" He yelled. The man was taken aback, but patted Bailey on the back.
"Your concern is most gratifying." The booming voice replied. He stomped the staff again, changing back into his previous form.
"Did you know that you didn't have your powers when you threw yourself in front of that girl? To try to stop that Fire Troll?""No..." He replied to the old man.
"Then you are brave... But foolish..." The old man turned back to go to his throne.
"You tried to fight a creature 100x your size to protect a girl you've only just met." Bailey looked down, but then looked at the old man.
"I don't care that i've only just met her. I'm a hero. I will save people even if i've never met them." he groaned.
"Yes, you do that. No matter how much the odds are stacked against you. When those agents for that vile beast in the oval office attacked me in my weakened state. You didn't hesitate." He replied.
"That is a rare trait... A trait that The Rock has been attempting to find.""Do... Do you know what happened to me?" Bailey asked.
"I do..." He replied.
"And i can tell you what you want to know."I want to know... But i want to save Christina first." He said.
"You have the power to save Christina. Save her and you can keep whatever secrets you want." The man turned and looked at the boy.
"Why do you think i will do one or the other?" The old man asked.
"Then...?" The wizard smiled.
"Maybe i am willing to save those who i have never met, because it is the right thing to do?" He laughed a deep, hearty laugh.
"If you wish for me to save her, then all you have to do is as i say." Bailey nodded. He slammed the staff down on the ground again.
"Take the staff." Bailey walked towards the old man, his fingers grasped the staff.
"Now... Speak my name..." Bailey looked him up and down, then looked at the statues.
"Zeus?" Bailey asked.
"That is but one of them." He replied.
"My name is power itself. My name is the Wisdom of Solomon, the Strength of Hercules, the Stamina of Atlas, the Power of Zeus, the Courage of Achilles and the Speed of Mercury..." Each statue glowed golden as he explained each of his powers. Bailey looked at each of them.
"Wisdom, Strength, Stamina, Power, Courage, Speed... Wsssp..." Bailey tried to make those into a word, before he then looked at the others.
"Wait... S-h-a-z-a-m..." He was about to say it when the old man put his finger across the boys mouth.
"Remember. My name gives power, but it also takes the power too." He said.
"When your city is safe, return to me and i will explain everything... Now speak my name." Bailey's lips opened.
Those words echoed across the universe. As if the very gods themselves heralded his ascension, he was enveloped in golden light and he was back on the streets. Christina looked and saw before her was a giant of a man, towering at 6'6, his firey red locks blowing in the breeze as he stood his hand outstretched
The Fire Troll looked confused as it reared back its hand, balled into a fist and threw it at the man. the man balled up his own fist and threw it to meet with the Troll's. A great BOOM rang out as their powers met, the Troll retracted his fist, howling in pain. Christina looked up at the man, who took a few steps towards her and extended a hand.
"Hi, Christina, it's me. I told you i was a hero." He smiled.
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