3 Chapter 3
Max wakes up the next day and it's Saturday. He has to go to work, but he decides to take the weekend off since he wants to try something out.
He has Max's memories and his knowledge of electronics. He knows he can control electricity and he wants to try controlling machines with it.
The machines run on electricity. He just needs to learn how the electricity flows inside them. He needs the circuit design of the computers or the motherboards in the machines.
He goes online and searches for the circuit designs. His first target is the television, one of the only electric appliances working in the house after he got his powers.
He finds the design after searching for a while. He unplugs his TV and puts it next to him to test his powers. He gives it a small amount of power to turn it on and then looks at the design.
"This pin should turn on the display and these pins control the colors," he murmurs to himself while trying it out.
The screen turns white and then red, yellow, and blue. He tries a few more things and understands how it works. He can't make a picture appear because he needs a lot of information for that.
He moves to his oven and learns to operate it remotely, quickly. He goes back to his computer and says, "Now, time to use this knowledge to earn some money."
He searches for the designs of slot machines to learn how they work. He can't learn it since he doesn't have one, but he does all the research and learns everything about the slot machines in use. They all have one thing in common: a counter that shows how many people used it. The counter increases the odds of winning the more people play. This gives people hope that they have a chance of winning if they play long enough.
He goes to McDonald's for breakfast and then to the nearest gym.
"I need to improve my body. To store electricity in me, the container must be strong. I guess I should go to the gym. There might be some equipment that could be useful even with my enhanced strength. Or, should I look for any rundown martial arts dojos that are run by very powerful people?" Max wonders as he walks through the streets of New York.
He goes to the gym and gets a membership for a month. He works out for a while and leaves the gym, angry. "Great. $30 wasted." Max says to himself.
His enhanced strength makes all the equipment in the gym useless. He expected some equipment to challenge him and help him work out. He knew this before and only got the monthly membership, even though the trainer tried to get him to take the yearly one.
He leaves and with no other option but to train himself, he decides to move to the next hurdle: fighting. He has basic knowledge of close combat from his police academy days, but people in this world can fight aliens with enough combat skills.
He checks the internet for dojos nearby and finds out that there is a huge demand for dojos in his area. He lives in a cheap building in a rundown neighborhood with a high crime rate. Many people want to learn self-defense to avoid being mugged.
There are many martial arts dojos of different styles from different countries. Max decides to check out the dojos before choosing one.
The jujutsu dojo was the closest one to his location. He went there and saw that it was empty. He expected it to be busy, considering how many dojos there were.
He entered the dojo with less enthusiasm than before and saw the receptionist sleeping. He walked up to him and woke him up. He jumped up and looked around until he saw Max. He rubbed his eyes and smiled brightly when he saw Max.
He said, "Welcome. You made the right decision to join this dojo. Please fill out this form and you can start right away."
Max stopped him and asked, "Why is this place deserted? I thought many people wanted to learn martial arts."
His face turned angry and he said, "All those idiots come for self-defense or are motivated by movies. They can't handle the fact that they can't use those techniques in real life with just a month of training. No one is going to stand there and let someone grab them."
Max said, "That makes sense. Sorry, man, I was just checking out the dojos to decide which one to choose. I'll make my decision after visiting the other dojos."
The receptionist didn't want to lose the only potential customer they had in a year. He said, "You don't have to waste time visiting all the other dojos. We'll train you to the level of a master for less than the usual price."
He offered huge discounts and Max gave in and joined the dojo with a condition that he could join other dojos if he liked them better.
Trainers and masters usually hated this since it slowed down their learning, but since the dojo was on the verge of shutting down, they agreed.
Max visited 20 more martial arts dojos and joined 11 of them with the same condition and lower prices. The rest didn't agree with his condition and refused to budge even with their failing business, which Max respected. He decided to join them after he mastered the 12 martial arts styles he committed to learning: jujutsu, kendo, wing chun, taekwondo, kickboxing, karate, kung fu, judo, krav maga, jeet kune do, hapkido, and Brazilian jujutsu.
He wouldn't be able to learn them to the point where he became Batman, but this would help him improve his combat skills for real fights.
The registration and the walking around took his whole day and it was getting dark. With his last $100 in his pocket, he went to the nearest big casino. He chose the big one so there would be fewer eyes on him. Even if he was monitored, he would be hard to notice.
He entered the casino and went straight to the slot machine. He didn't know how to use it, so he watched the others and learned from them. When he was confident, he went to the most isolated slot machine he could find. He didn't want anyone watching him.
"Now, I need to play it so that I lose a lot at first before winning some and losing again, but making sure the net profit is positive. This way, I won't be kicked out of the casino and I can come here regularly." Max said.
He did that and lost continuously until he had 10 tries left. He touched the slot machine and ran electricity through it. He made it flow to the counter and saw that it was unplugged from the board. They rigged it to fail almost every time.
Max sent power through the pins that controlled the output and played with them for the desired results. He failed the first time and tried again. He repeated this for seven more tries until he had only two left.
"OK. You can't mess this up again. Concentrate, Max." He told himself and sent power through the pins again. This time, it worked, but not the way he wanted. He wanted to avoid the jackpot since it would draw attention to him, but he got it anyway.
He quickly cut off the power to the speaker in his slot machine and acted normal. He moved to the slot machine next to him and wasted all the money he won until he had $1000 left. He decided that was enough for today and cashed out his money and left.
With his powers, he could easily get rich overnight, but he didn't want S.H.I.E.L.D.⁴ to monitor him. He wanted to make money every day. If he stayed low, he could go to multiple casinos in one night and earn a lot of money without alerting them.
This was his plan until he was strong enough to use his powers openly. If he showed his powers now, some scientist would figure out that he could be killed by overloading him.
He wanted to go to other casinos, but he remembered his dinner plan with the killer across from his house. He went to the restaurant where she planned to treat him and waited at the entrance since Lisa wasn't there yet.
He waited for 10 minutes before he saw two women walking towards him. One wore a fancy red dress and the other wore a casual white shirt and jeans.
He recognized the one in the red dress. She was Lisa. The other woman was also blonde and beautiful.
They stopped in front of Max and Lisa pointed to the woman next to her and said, "Max, meet my friend Anna. Anna, this is Max. Anna works with me. We both work at the bar and since she didn't work today, I brought her with me. I hope that's OK."
"More the merrier, right?" Max said.
He thought to himself, 'Great. Another killer around me. Is it so hard to stay away from weird people when you have superpowers?'
He still greeted her and they entered the restaurant. While eating, Lisa said to Max, "Anna and I have known each other since childhood and we went to the same boarding school. We ran away from there together."
Max said, "Great to see how close you two are."
They talked while eating and when they finished, they parted ways.
Max went back home while Lisa left with Anna. They walked on the streets when Anna asked, "Are you sure he knows what we do?"
"Yes. He saw me yesterday with my white dress stained with blood. He tried to ignore me, but his face is easy to read." Lisa said with an amused tone.
"He's interesting. I should move in with you." Anna suggested and Lisa agreed.
****
Meanwhile, in a galaxy far far away, on a barren planet called Torfa, a team of elite soldiers emerges from the murky water in their stealth suits. The whole planet is shrouded in thick fog, limiting their visibility and forcing them to rely on their scanners.
A woman from the group, breaks away from the others and climbs up a rocky hill where she sets up her sniper rifle. She scans the horizon for any signs of movement, ready to provide cover fire for her teammates.
The rest of the soldiers, led by Yon-Rogg, advance cautiously towards the village where the natives live. They are looking for a spy who has vital information about their enemy, the shape-shifting Skrulls. Yon-Rogg keeps an eye on the villagers, who seem unaware of their presence, but he fails to notice that one of his soldiers, Vers, has strayed from the group.
Vers follows a faint signal to a secluded spot where he finds a man sitting on a crate. He looks like a human, but Vers knows better. She asks for the code word, and the man replies with the correct one. Vers lowers her guard and approaches him, thinking she has found the spy.
But as she gets closer, she hears Yon-Rogg's voice crackling in her earpiece. "It's...an...ambush...I repeat...it's...an...amb...ush...Vers...regr...oup..."
The message is distorted by the jammers, but Vers gets the gist of it. She realizes she has walked into a trap, but it's too late. The man grabs her arm and shocks him with a hidden device. Vers falls to the ground, unconscious. The man smiles and reveals his green skin and pointy ears. He is a Skrull, and he has just captured a Kree soldier.
[I apologize. I also felt that this chapter did not have much progress. As you may have guessed, the next chapter will begin the Captain Marvel plot. You can find the description of Anna, the new character, in the chapter comments.]
