21 Chapter 21: The Hood
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No matter how happy Edward was with making the first step toward his ADC, he still had a problem. Even if ADC was the answer to breaking the Human Limit, which was far from being a certainty, it would take him a while to get there, and he certainly wasn't going to rush his learning of the Mystical Arts.
But in recent times Edward has observed a spike in the number of super powered individuals, there were the ones he faced himself, but Peter had also been fighting some on his own. There was also Iron Man who had recently appeared, and revealed himself to be Tony Stark. Or Batman in Gotham. Or Spider Man in New York.
And even ignoring those there could always be a demon appearing and laying havoc.
As more and more threats appeared, Edward knew that his power was way too lacking. No matter how skilled he was, if he couldn't even injure his enemies then he was useless.
The obvious answer to Edward's problem was to get a weapon, but he didn't know where to get one. His first guess was Kamar-Taj, but he forgot about it as he already knew he wouldn't find what he sought there.
Magical Weapons chose their owners, and he had already gone there plenty of times. Other than the Armor of the Ancients, no other artefact reacted to him, meaning he wasn't suited for them.
Edward also thought about making a weapon through technology, but a heat weapon wouldn't compliment well with his fighting style, and he didn't know how to make a satisfactory weapon with technology.
Sighing, Edward left his lab. He was getting hungry, and just staying in his lab wasn't going to help him think of an idea.
Edward walked to the next street, and arrived at a street food stand. It was quite early, but Edward was hungry after an entire night of experimentations. The good thing was, there was no queue.
"Mr Scientist, as usual, I assume?" The stand's owner was an older man, maybe in his sixties. He was quite friendly.
Edward smiled at him and said "Sure Bob. How is life?"
Bob shrugged as he began making a hot dog, and said "Same as always I guess, me being busy making the best hot dogs in the city with one arm… I mean, I'm still waiting for my Nobel Prize."
Edward smirked, one particularity about Bob was that he had only had one hand. He lost the other while he served in the army, and grew used to live with it ever since then.
Actually, Bob's story was quite sad. Through their interactions in the past few months, Edward learned that Bob's son died, alongside his daughter in law, leaving only a small girl behind. Bob couldn't really work in anything because of his hand though, so he set up this stand to provide money to his granddaughter.
The two continued chatting while Bob was making the hot dog, and as he was about to serve Edward a man approached and said "Mr Bell, would you please follow me?"
Edward sent a look at the man, he was shorter than him, but looked at Edward with a threatening face. He was dressed like a typical gangster, and Edward could see the form of a gun in his pants. Along with his question that sounded more like an order than a request, this man obviously wasn't here to drink tea with Edward.
Bob frowned across the stand and said with a heavier voice than usual "Need some help mate?!" Edward looked at Bob in shock, where was that English accent coming from?
The gangster clearly wasn't as amused as Edward was though as one of his hands now laid on his gun and he looked at Bob with scowl "None of your business old man."
Bob looked ready to burst, and if Edward was reading his Chi Sense right then Bob was ready to grab something under his counter, which probably was a weapon.
Edward waved his hand at the old man and said "It's alright Bob, I got this."
Then, he looked back at the gangster and asked "Where do you want to go?" The gangster clicked his tongue as he said "I said come with me, now."
Edward shook his head, and he suddenly swung his leg at the man. The gangster was only a normal person, and he barely saw the leg reach his head before he was hit, and fell to the ground, unconscious.
However, Edward knew troubles weren't over as people in a nearby van were getting agitated. Ignoring them, Edward took his hot dog from Bob, while giving him a large tip as he said "I want answers about this English accent next time I come."
Bob looked worried though and not really in the mood for jokes as he asked "Are you in trouble?"
Edward shook his head and replied "I don't know what they want, but I assure you that this kind of people can't do anything to me, and should rather be worried about themselves."
Bob still looked worried, but eventually nodded. He reluctantly took the tip as Edward walked off with a smile on his face. Although the kick just now was impressive, Bob knew more than anyone the danger a weapon represented nowadays.
Edward didn't really want to leave a problem behind and let it escalate, so he did not walk all the way back to his lab, but stopped in an alley where he opened a portal to the roof above him.
There, he ate his hot dog as he watched the black car. He saw a couple of men enter the alley a couple of seconds after him, but stop in their steps as they didn't see anything.
The two went back into the car, and it drove away. Casually eating his food, Edward followed them by creating portals, curious about who exactly was seeking trouble with him.
Unaware of the monster tailing them, the gangsters in the van moved all the way to a rundown building, and entered it. From outside, Edward could feel about thirty people inside, one of which was weird. It felt dark, but also faint.
He wasn't afraid though as he entered the building, already covered in his suit. He didn't even bother to hide as he knocked out any gangster he passed by, they were only ordinary people, it was too easy for him.
That was until he arrived next to the room where that strange Chi was. There were only five people inside, excluding the strange one, and all the others were knocked out outside.
"Did you get him?"
Someone asked inside, with a commanding tone.
"We couldn't, he is tougher than he looks, he knocked out John with a single kick."
The second voice was clearly afraid of the first one, and each word he spoke was measured.
"Excuses, always excuses… With the freak in prison, who is going to make my GOD DAMN MONSTERS IF YOU DON'T CATCH HIM!"
Edward let out a sigh of relief as he heard the leader. So they were after him because of the Lizard formula. He had feared they somehow knew of his other identity, but he was reassured now.
Edward kicked the door, sending it flying into one of the gangsters. The other gangsters all took out their weapons, but Edward moved between them at an alarmingly quick speed, knocking them out one by one with a single strike each, until only the leader, who had the strange Chi, was left.
The guy was dressed strangely, he had a long red cloak that actually looked a little like Strange's cloak, except that this one had a hood, and it couldn't fly.
Edward could also feel the cloak was magical, and it was what made this guy's Chi so strange.
The two stared at each other for a second, and the guy said "Only you would dare to attack the Hood, unfortunately, you didn't realize you were out of your league."
As he said that he suddenly disappeared, giving Edward quite the shock. It was because this guy, the Hood, hadn't just become invisible, he couldn't hear him either, and he was pretty sure even a dog wouldn't be able to smell his presence.
Unfortunately for him, his Chi was still there, sticking out and giving out his position and every movement to Edward.
The later took a quick step to the right, dodging a knife that went for his heart, and punched the air in front of him. His fist did meet something else than air though, and it was the Hood's face.
The gang leader was sent flying backwards, obviously a little stunned. However, much to Edward's surprise, he wasn't knocked out. He had just hit the man's temple with a good part of his strength, something that would have sent a normal person into a coma at least.
As Edward realized his mistake of not putting enough power in his punch, the Hood also realized that he had underestimated the hero.
He once again disappeared, and took out a pair of guns. However, no matter how many bullets he shots, Edward was dodging them with utter ease while closing in on in.
The inevitable quickly came, and the Hood was once again hit, in the stomach this time, and by a full powered quick from Edward.
However, the Hood had managed to place a part of his cape in front of the kick, mitigating the impact, although he felt like puking.
As Edward prepared to end the fight and call the police though, the Hood released a roar, which sounded normal at first but quickly turned heavier and rougher. At the same time, the skin Edward could see was turning grey, and he was starting to grow in size.
The Hood's hand had already turned into a large demonic paw, and it's arm seemed to bulge in size as he exerted himself and pushed Edward off him, slashing at him across the chest.
Edward didn't expect it, and rapidly retreated as his chest pained him. He couldn't react because his Chi Sense didn't allow him to sense danger, but the intentions of people. Before transforming, the Hood was trying to get him off too, but was too weak to do so.
As a monster, he did the exact same thing, meaning the response of his Chi was the same.
His mistake aside, Edward felt quite shocked, not only at the fact the Hood was turned into a scary monster, but also because it was able to injure him, tearing through the Armor of the Ancient. It nearly instantly repaired itself, but if the Hood managed to hit a weak spot then he had a shot at killing him.
The Hood roared like the monster it was and jumped at Edward, who noticed that while it had become much stronger, it also lost most of it's intelligence.
Now prepared against it's sharp weapons and strong body, Edward made sure to dodge it's attack as he dealt a full powered elbow strike to it's solar plexus. If he did this to a normal person, not only would they die, their chest would cave in.
But the Hood barely coughed as it was pushed back, before jumping right back at Edward. It's claws whistled as they slashed through the air, but they always failed to hit Edward. Instead, the Hood was repeatedly getting hit, causing the damage to accumulate.
A few minutes later, the Hood was panting as it's left arm was laying limp on it's side. Edward jumped in the air, taking the Dragon Stance, and struck down with his foot. The Hood tried to defend himself, but it's body was too battered, and the foot fell on it's head.
The Hood fell to the ground, and it's body began changing as the demonic parts disappeared, going back to the original human form.
Author's Note: So I would like to get better at writing, so can you all tell me why the stories above me in the rankings are better? What's the problem with my novel? Is the plot boring? Are the characters bland? Is the writing quality bad? Are there any changes that you think this story needs? I can't understand it myself, so I need your help. It's an honest inquiry, not a whim.
