Chapter 9: Might

"Whenever he comes back with V, he always carries them in a special noodle container from seasoned noodles. That's all I know about where he gets them from! I swear!"

Mike looked at her "She is lying. She knows more, but isn't telling us." Popclaw gulped when he said that and this action basically confirmed the statement for everyone.

"Is it just me or did the temperature just drop?!" A Mike sighed and a... heap of black breath escaped his mouth. His eyes suddenly turned completely black, as he stood up and stared down Popclaw. His cold face didn't change initially, but as he got closer, it morphed into a wide grin. His soulless eyes entranced Popclaw and she couldn't stop shivering.

Mike extended his hand and caught Popclaw by her shoulder. His muscles slightly bulged and a small creaking noise could be heard in the room, as Popclaw stared in fear. She wanted to scream, but he throat felt frozen over and she couldn't even let out a sound.

Mike saw that she was ready to cooperate and brought back his aura a bit. "Now, start talking female. I do not want to repeat myself again. Tell me EVERYTHING you know!"

Popclaw nodded her head in quick succession as Mike let his hold on her slightly loosen and she said almost broke down, but Mike's eyes didn't let her look away. She began uncontrollably sobbing, but the threat of doom kept her talking "H-h-e brings the v-v-vee from t-thr-e-ee dif-fferent locations. One of them is the s-seasoned No-oodles store, the other times it was from a chinese place a couple of block away from here called 'Rolled dough'. There was also this one time when he brought a darker blue version of it directly from Vought and asked me if I wanted to get a boost, which I said no too. I don't know what he did with the darker V."

Mike began stretching his hand out and Popclaw flinched and jumped back, slamming into her couch and barely managed to close her eyes, as the terror set in and she became even more hysterical "*sob* please that's all I know! I told you everything *sob*, please, please don't hurt me. I-I don't know anything else. Ple-"

The sudden pain caused Popclaw to twitch her eyes open. What she saw was Mike's cold smiling and happy face, as he grabbed her throat and lifted her up off the floor. Popclaw didn't even try to resist. The fear of what Mike could do was still rooted deep within her and not even a thought of rebelling passed through her mind.

Her tears mixed in with her saliva, as Mike choked her. "Pl-ease. Do-t. ghut. Mhee." Between her breaths, the best she could do was slowly beg for her life.

Mike gave a gentle smile to Popclaw and released his grip. She fell onto the floor, crying tears as she stared at Mike's smiling face. "I know you weren't lying. I just wanted to give a small parting gift, to remind you of what will happen if you tell your boyfriend about anything you saw here today! Now, would you be so kind as to give me your phone number. I enjoyed our little chat and would like to have another one at a later date."

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Butcher wrapped his arm around Mike's shoulder as they left the apartment "Bloody hell, you gotta teach me how you do that when I learn this Wayfarer bollocks! Scaring a supe straight, sounds like something from a wet dream of mine" Mike chuckled at Butcher's remark

"It's a death knight technique called 'Fear'. You directly convert your inner hatred into bloodlust and project it around you. Without a tempered mind, even the strongest of individuals will get overwhelmed. My mastery over all of my techniques has reached the pinnacle, so I can direct them solely at 1 person or make a wave"

Mike looked towards Hughie and said "You will learn how to do this one day, Hughie. This and much, much more. Butcher, you can also learn to use it, but you will need a legion brand for it."

Butcher looked at Mike and nodded "You teach me how to scare a supe straight and I'll fucking tattoo your name on my ass cheeks!"

Mike chuckled at that and said "I think it is about time we begin your might training. Our next mission is probably going to take a while, so I don't see any harm in teaching you two, while we scout those places. But first, I would appreciate some... IDs, you call them? And a passport. Don't want the racists breathing down my neck."

Hughie helped Butcher, Frenchie and Mike into the Van and they drove off. Mike had borrowed two notebooks from Mother's Milk and was writing something in weird characters, most likely belonging to an unknown language, when he looked up with an awkward stare "Um, I think we may have a problem here."

Butcher looked over from the shotgun seat and said "What's the problem, Lad?" Mike kept his awkward expression "My eyes don't have an inscription on them and I don't know how to read your 'English'." Butcher nodded his head "That is one big fucking problem, alright. Actually, how are you speaking English, if you can't read it?"

Mike shrugged "I'm speaking in the language of psionics. It's something my wife taught me. Rather than words, I talk in intent. Intent is as if I say a word in every single language, because the word used might be different, but all people will say the same thing when asked about the same thing. Whichever language you use to think is the one you will hear. Frenchie, try thinking in French."

Frenchie's eyes widened, as he heard Mikes next words "Butcher and the Americans hear me in English, while you hear French, am I right?"

Frenchie began speaking in French and Mike responded appropriately "Can you actually understand me?"

Mike nodded "Yes, as I said, I have a translator for every language in my inner ear. I can hear and speak any language, but I cannot choose which language I speak, as I speak all of them."

Butcher nodded his head and said "Alright, we need to split the manpower. Hughie, you're on tutor duty. Teach Mike how the English alphabet works and then have him google the rest. MM, Frenchie, you two are on lookout. Watch the two locations separately and make sure you don't lose track of anyone. I'll go and get a little bit of help from an old friend.

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Even with the added difficulty of English being three different languages in a trenchcoat pretending to be a single one, Mike still managed to master the basics of writing and grammar within a week. Currently Mother's Milk him and Hughie are sitting inside the white Van, watching the Noodle shop, as the chinese place turned out to be a bust. It closed down a couple of days ago, most likely due to it being 'burned'.

"The notebook has all the techniques of a death knight written down. All that's left is to unlock your spirit and you can begin to learn."

Hughie looked at Mike with a serious face and said "How do I unlock this 'spirit' of mine?"

Mike lifted his arm and it suddenly caught aflame. Hughie jumped back in fright and said "Woah, woah! How did you do that?!"

Mike chuckled "This is a technique all combat specialist can learn, called 'spirit ignition'. You directly project your spirit outside your body. A human's spirit is extremely flammable and will ignite as soon as it is out of your body. This increases the power output of your body by about 50% at the highest level of mastery.

Even if it sounds dangerous, it isn't really that dangerous. Your spirit is quick to recover if you have the will to live and spirit has a minimum density requirement. If you burn it too much, the size of it will decrease to the point of going back into your body, stopping the combustion all together. It is one of the most reliable iterations of said technique. A death knight can use the burning Fury variant of spirit ignition. It is able to provide double the regular power output to death knights."

Mike demonstrated what he said by slowly allowing his spirit to burn away and shrink into his skin, after which, it disappeared without even leaving a mark on the skin.

"See? The most dangerous part of learning this skill is becoming overconfident of your mastery and running out of spirit too fast. Well, you can also burn yourself a bit if you keep your spirit too close to your skin, but a bit of sunblock is enough to stop that. Now listen up. This will hurt a lot and no amount of pain medication will be enough to not make it hurt, so I'll get it over with quickly. Take off your shirt and face your back towards the wall."

Hughie nodded and quickly did what Mike asked of him. Mike projected his spirit once again. The fiery aura once again enveloped Mike, as he walked up to Hughie, who was sitting down with his back against the Van's wall.

Within half a second, Mike ignited his spirit and squatting down in front of Hughie, he grabbed his torso and pulled with all of his strength.

"Aahhhhhhhhh!" Hughie let out an ear piercing scream, but Mike quickly disabled his burning aura and covered Hughie's mouth to muffle the scream. The two sides of Hughie's chest were charred, as he twitched on the ground in pain and kept trying to claw his ribs off and. scream with no sound coming out.

"M.M. Come in, we got a man!" Frenchie's voice was heard over the walkie-talkie and Mother's Milk banged his hand on the steering wheel. "What great fucking timing!"

Mike sighed "You go and tail the guy to the base, I'll keep Hughie under control and calm him down. I know you two have bad blood, but try to not mess up. I don't want more supes in this world than necessary."

~A seven nation army couldn't hold me back~

Mike let out a sigh as his ringtone played and he saw the caller ID, which turned out to be starlight. Mother's Milk chuckled at Mike and left a few words before leaving "Today ain't our day, brother."

Mike nodded with his smiling face and said "It most definitely is not!"

A.N

We are 100% reaching 69 stones, so have the bonus chapter early. I believe in you lot and this is my story, so imma do whatever the hell I want.