A Test Of Skill

(Nathan POV)

Sleeping in DC is probably the worst thing you can do, or maybe my luck is just that bad. When I closed my eyes, I saw those same two hands colliding once more as one of shining gold shook with one of twisted darkness, and the simple meeting of these two hands made me feel like my eyes were on fire and my soul burning into nothingness.

Images of never-ending timelines with the dark overlaid by the Light and vice versa and the laughter, the never-ending laughter of a being that seemed to radiate an insane, severe, rigid emptiness. And then I see a woman with three faces being devoured by a man who has no eyes or nose but only a mouth.

I see three figures holding out their hands to place a woman that seems to be made of stars into a golden cage, and as she screams out, a ripple in reality forms, too, which I am sucked into.

The pain did not seem to end, and as my consciousness began to drift further, I felt my shoulder being grasped by a new figure. His eyes radiated endless stars, and his very presence warped reality around him, as his mouth opened, his words echoed all around me.

"You are not of this multiverse, but I cannot see you nor harm you, not that I had an intention to do so; many are rising mortal; the dark and the Light will go to war soon enough. The endless black cannot be contained forever. You must act in our place."

"But how I feel overwhelmed… I'm terrified of failing." The being's eyes somewhat softened as he spoke once more.

"It is within all beings the capacity to fear, but it is within all beings to feel every range of emotion. You have been given the tools to succeed. Whether or not you succeed is up to you. I shall not appear again but to direct your dreams as to preserve your sanity. But do not give up and never hesitate, as hesitation is defeat. Dream of a brighter tomorrow, and it shall happen." 

I then realized that I had been standing on the palm of his hand, and as he closed it, the voices receded.

My eyes then opened as I dodged a blade aimed at my heart, and as I stood ready to fight, I saw the same old man Sensei from before. As he saw my face, he nodded and said, "You are alert, good enough for now head to the training center to begin." He then threw down smoke, and he was gone.

I then took a breath as I tried to steady myself and decided to check my progress again: 

[Loid Forger (Spy X Family): 65%]

[Taskmaster (Marvel Comics: Earth 616): 56%]

[Alex Mercer (Prototype 1&2) 15%]

All of them had gone up by around ten percent by just meeting a fraction of an endless and were rising more steadily. I then noticed my race had changed as I went from a malnourished human to a Human/Blacklight Hybrid, and as I focused on my form, I noticed that my looks had begun to be more defined and robust.

Honestly, it may be a subconscious desire as my looks seem to be combining my looks with Alex Mercer, and it looks good, at least in my opinion, but who knows? 

Comic book pretty is a thing, as I noticed that any character that has been shown looks generally better than most people. However, that may just be due to their superhuman attributes or general lifestyle choices.

After looking away from the mirror, I found some clothes at the foot of my bed, and as I put them on, as I don't require showers to smell uniform, I observed the looks of them, and they seemed close to what they would wear in the Dark Knight which was all black, but I did see some of the other ninjas with other outfits so maybe this is the initiate clothing.

Finishing the process, I picked up the katana at the foot of the bed, placed it in the sheath, and began to make my way through the base. When I was given the tour, I was shown all the areas, from the bedrooms to the eating hall. Overall, it was rather nice in a minimalist way.

The general decor of the base was rather lacking as there were no ornate decorations along the walls as if each room had simply been dug from the sides of the mountain we were in, but it was enough for now. 

The entrance to the training hall was a decently sized door and was a lot heavier, which was its own form of training as you could not even enter the room without opening the door. So, as I placed my hand on the door, I was able to push it open with some effort as it seemed to weigh at least over 200 pounds. Thankfully, my strength was slowly increasing thanks to Taskmaster and Alex Mercer templates.

However, when I studied my form, it seemed that when I assimilated a card of a higher power level than mine, my body would attempt to make the new card my baseline, so my strength had been increasing to the level of Alex Mercer at the beginning of Prototype 1. 

The other templates seem to come with their skills and abilities but no memories. Luckily, my strength was not locked to my highest rank template as I could increase it further, but getting a stronger template would help in the increase.

The door then opened with a loud creak as I saw Sensei, Sportasmaster, Talia, and another woman with long hair who looked of Asian descent. Her eyes seemed to scan me like the others, to which I walked over and gave a bow of respect to them. 

This caused Sporstamster to chuckle as he said, "Well, at least the kid knows to respect his elders and is punctual, too; Sensei over here didn't even expect you to be able to open the door for another few minutes."

Looking over at him, he seemed to be blank, but I could see a glint of interest in his eyes as Talia seemed to expect this outcome, as anyone chosen by her father cannot be ordinary. The other woman remained silent as Sposrtamaster continued.

"Well, since you are here, we are going to start your training, but since Ra's seems to see you as some kind of special case, you will be fighting me first, so I hope you don't bore me, kid." He then takes out what looks like a fencing saber, and I take out my katana.

The way and efficiency with which I unsheathe the blade caused them to be somewhat surprised as Sportsmaster rushed me and thrust multiple times. I managed to dodge some, but others left cuts in my uniforms as my Taskmaster mimicry got to work with Senju Muso, giving them various options for his next move.

Tens of images appear in front of me that show various ways he can attack, from various slashes to other thrusts at different positionings, and as he goes to stab me in the right arm, I parrot. He strikes and slashes at his stomach, which does manage to land, but the blade simply scratches his body armor.

This causes the man to pause as he looks at me with an almost annoyed and intrigued gaze, and as he repositions himself, he takes out a hockey stick, which may look normal, but I can see the make of it being of high quality. 

And this is DC, where the smallest of things can deal the largest of damage. I mean, look at the Atom. The guy could disable Superman once he got inside his brain.

As he hefts the stick, he makes a wide salah, which he then follows up with a kick to my legs, which manages to hit me, but with the slash, I duck under and, grab the stick and pull him towards me. I try to strike him in the face, which sends him back a bit, and I follow up with a slash to his unarmored underarm, which draws some blood.

Before I could continue, my blade was topped by Sensei, and the Sportsmaster's gun was held by the woman.

"Enough! We have seen enough! You show skill and potential initiative but hold your focus. They are allies. For now. Lower your weapon." I then do so after wiping the blade off and sheathing it.

Sportmaster then nodded his head and said, "Lucky shot, kid, you surprised me. I can see what the old man chose you for, but don't let it go to your head, kid. Next time, I won't miss." 

Miss? I then looked behind me and saw a hole right where my head had been before, and I nodded back at him, to which he scoffed, "Ra's cut out your tongue, huh? Say something. I can't take you seriously unless you know how to talk back, kid."

"At least I'm not wearing hockey pads. It was a good fight, and trust me, you'll miss it again next time." He nods his head and walks away to get the cut treated. Sensei then looks at me and says.

"Your skills show promise but do not be too hasty to draw blood, although you did well in making that man bleed. For now, I shall show you some techniques, and you shall not leave until you perfect them understood."

"Yes, Sensei, but I must ask if I must repair my own uniform or if I will receive a new one." I could use my biomass to repair it, but I need to ask this question. He seems to consider the question but answers.

"In the event that your uniform takes a few cuts, you will need to repair it on your own, but we understand that during missions, a uniform may not be salvageable, and you may receive another one. Then, for now, we shall provide means to repair it. But since it is only a few cuts, your training will continue."

Nodding, he then shows me basic sword stances and various martial arts as he attempts to gauge my skill level, and as I copy him to a degree, he seems almost to become annoyed but remains silent. 

The stances relate to multiple martial arts forms, from Judo to Aikido, and as we train in the training hall, I see other initiates begin their own training using dummies to practice sword styles and martial arts.

There are other training rooms meant for various other things, for example, the slicing room where initiates are taught to hack into various technologies as well as projectile and weapons training, specifically ranged weapons, which looks similar to many shooting halls and ranges. But the weaponry is rather interesting.

In addition to various assault rifles, machine guns, snipers, and shotguns, there were bows, blowpipes, and shuriken, among other various toys. 

My training schedule consisted of training in the morning with Sensei, early afternoon consisting of weapons training, and late night training involving a mix of projectile training and sparring with other initiates.

It genuinely did surprise me how many people there were in this space as there were definitely a couple hundred at minimum estimates, and more were coming and going; even other members of the Light would show up, but only Queen Bee had shown herself and only to speak of her plans with Ra's.

If there were any member of the Light I would want to meet, it would be Vandal or Lex as I was curious about his experiences, and for Lex, a pick at his personality as Lex Luthor's in the multiverse range from heroes, antiheroes to straight-up villains. 

In one timeline, he went insane and killed the Flash, causing the Justice Lord timeline, and in that one story, Lois became a Kryptonian after the Death Of Superman to Doomsday.

She would kill him, but not after he admitted to poisoning the Earth and flooding lakes with oil and chemicals to save money.

This multiverse is definitely an expansive one, and in terms of members, I would not want to meet the Brain or Klarion, the Witch Boy. As with my current state, even limited as he is by his physical form, he is still a powerful Chaos Lord.

Imagine my surprise when I returned to my room and found his cat waiting for me.