Act 9: Fun Vengeance And Less Fun Vengeance

--- Joshua ---

Once more he found himself in a corner of his school cafeteria throwing paper balls into the trash can, and missing over and over again.

(Alright, fuck this.)

He took a glance around to make sure no one was looking before reaching into his backpack and pulling out a Malice vial, something he knew he shouldn’t bring to school but also felt he might need given how he intended to go to Zylah’s ‘training’ later in the day.

(Actually since I’m thinking about it…) He reached into his backpack again and found a half-empty water bottle before pouring the Malice into it underneath his table, figuring drinking it from a water bottle would be better than publicly downing the vial itself.

With the task done he took a moment to watch how the Malice mixed with the water before noticing it sink to the bottom of the bottle leaving the rest of the water with a pinkish tinge.

(Okay, so Malice is notably denser than water, good to know.) Not that it actually changed anything, or stopped him from downing the bottle’s contents in a single go.

(Which I didn’t mean to do…) He frowned before feeling his heart rate spike as he tasted that strawberry copper and heard that sweet symphony of swing.

He threw another ball of paper towards the trash bin and couldn’t help but grin madly as it landed exactly where he wanted. Of course this grin soon turned into a frown as he realized he’d forgotten to flex his madness field this time. (Meaning the Malice spiked my stats enough that I don’t need my field to make these easy throws, and that I need something harder to really push it…)

The familiar sound of cruel laughter drew his attention towards a group of kids -one or two of which he recognized as his own bullies- messing with a kid.

(Oh, I really must thank you for volunteering to be part of the show.) He smiled with nothing but teeth.

He reached out with his Rube Goldberg Field while focusing on the thought, (Make them pay.) before tearing out another page from his notebook and tossing it in the general direction that instinct demanded.

The page landed in a puddle of spilt something that normally would’ve done nothing to whoever stepped in it, if not for the wet paper reducing traction as it fell apart. Something that a random student learned upon slipping in the puddle and losing his lunch tray as it flew half-way across the room before landing in the middle of a popular clique of girls who panicked as they were suddenly covered in gunk from both the thrown tray and their own meals. And in their panic to get away from the mess one of said popular girls ended up bumping into one of the bullies, who in turn knocked over one of his bullies who proceeded to stumble face first into a passing student’s meal.

(Oh, that is definitely an improvement.) He chuckled to himself, enjoying the fact that it was his bully’s misery people were laughing at for once instead of the real victims’.

Scene Consequences

-Malice Vial Consumed

--Remaining: 3

-Gained (1 + (Malicious D6 = 3) = 4)XP to Rube Goldberg Field

--Currently: Lv. 2 (5/6)

-For using Malice to Train a power for the first time gained 1 Malicious Madness.

---

Stepping into the warehouse he kept his guard up knowing that if Zylah was present then odds are she wasn’t going to be kind in her latest lesson.

“So you actually showed up today.” A voice practically growled at him.

“Uh, yeah.” He nodded, feeling more than a little wary as he caught sight of the Shadow Dancer sitting at the table in the middle of the warehouse.

“Good, I would’ve hated having to spend two hours waiting on a no show because my boss wants me to help out a flake.” Zylah admitted cheerfully as she stood up.

“Y-yeah that would’ve sucked.” He agreed nervously as Zylah began walking towards him. (This is going to be even worse than last time.)

Zylah dropped her fake smile and glared at him. “There’s a park with a forest just outside the South-West side of town, meet me there in thirty minutes or I’m leaving you to rot.”

“But that’s on the other side of town!” He cried as Zylah passed him.

“That sounds like a ‘you’ problem.” The Shadow Dancer told him before disappearing in a black blur.

“Shit.” He cursed before making his way out of the warehouse and pulling his phone out to set a destination to his navigation app. “Fuck, it’s ten minutes until the next bus and I have to loop half the route to get there!”

Frowning he began shifting the map around as he ran, before clicking the ‘walk to destination’ icon. “Double fuck it’s almost a two and a half hour walk from here…” He paused as something occurred to him. (That’s a two and a half hour walk but with my Stamina I can run the whole way there, and if I don’t fuck up the bits of parkour I might be able to shave off a bit more time… Yeah, I’ll be cutting it close but, I can make that show time.)

He nodded to himself turning down an alley and running towards a chain link fence used to mark off a company back entrance. (Let’s hope I don’t fuck this up.)

Taking a deep breath he angled himself slightly towards the alley wall where he kicked off of it to place a foot on a dumpster that he took two steps on before kicking off the wall once more and launching himself towards the top of the fence. Where upon catching the top of the fence he swung his legs as he pulled himself up and threw himself over the fence before landing in a roll on the other side.

“Yes!” He cheered, hoping in place as he finally pulled off one of his parkour chains as intended.

“Wait, no.” He stopped himself. “I’ve still only got like thirty minutes to run… a long fucking way.”

Scene Consequences

-New Power: Enhanced Acrobatics Lv. 1 (0/4)

--All Reflex stats gain +(Power Level) when performing acrobatic feats during their checks.

---

“Okay… okay… I’m here…” He gasped, actually feeling the burn from all of that running. “Now where… is that… bitch…”

“Damn, less than a minute off.” A voice announced from behind him.

“Fuck!” He cursed turning towards the Shadow Dancer. “Don’t sneak up on me like that!”

“Oh, you are going to hate today then.” Zylah smiled in a way that did bad things to him.

“But, wait, we’re still doing the training?” He blinked. “I thought you said I was a minute late or something.”

“No, you were less than a minute from being late.” Zylah corrected him with a sigh. “Meaning I still have to train you.” (And the creepy smile is back.) “Though the fact that you’re going to hate this is a decent balm to that pain.”

“Why am I going to hate this?” He asked against his better judgement.

“Because since you skipped yesterday’s training, today’s is going to be two fold.” Zylah explained with a sadistic grin. “On one side you need to learn how to be stealthy, and on another you need to know how to notice when someone is following you.”

“Meaning?”

“Today, I’m going to hunt you for sport.”

---

(Fuck this shit. Fuck this bullshit so hard!) He whimpered on the ground after another nightmarish fifteen minutes of Zylah stalking him, purposely jump-scaring him, messing with him, and all in all turning him into a nervous wreck, before finally knocking him to the ground in a short but brutal beatdown.

“Wow. You really suck at this.” Zylah laughed, standing over him. “Which is great since we still have another two, three hours of this since we’ve got to make up for your cutting class yesterday.”

(Yeah… Fuck that.) He decided, weakly grabbing Zylah’s ankle. (It’s time to cheat.) “You bitch…”

“You’re the one screaming like one.” Zylah scoffed, kicking his hand away and completely unaware of the tag sticking to her. “Now get up we’re not leaving until you’re at least passable at this.”

“Uh-huh.” He growled, picking himself off the ground as Zylah disappeared into the forest once more.

(And if I’m going to cheat…) He reached into his pocket and pulled out the surprisingly durable vial of Malice he’d brought just in case he had to fight (the bitch) again. (Might as well double down on it.)

He quickly undid the cap before downing the vial of copper strawberries, and much like earlier in the day he felt his heart rate spike, that sweet symphony start, and a mad grin stretch across his face.

Running off instinct it didn’t even take him a full minute to find the place Zylah was watching from a few meters away, though he made sure not to let her realize he knew where she was since she’d likely seen him down the vial even if she didn’t realize he’d tagged her. “Now let’s see how you do with the host actually playing fair.”

Much like his previous runs Zylah followed him, dancing around his position to try and wire him up with the occasional ruffling of a bush here and a snapping of a twig there, both things he ignored since she was gone as soon as he directed his attention to those. Which is why he kept the majority of it on the tag marking the Shadow Dancer’s position relative to his own in whatever weird 3D mental map he had going on.

After a few minutes Zylah seemingly got bored of his lack of response and in turn rushed him in an attempt to take him down far sooner than she had on their previous runs.

Following the tag in his mind’s eye he rolled to the side a moment before the Shadow Dancer’s heel shattered the ground where he’d been standing.

“You’re cheating~” Zylah told him in a sing-song kind of voice.

“Never said I couldn’t take a vial to beat you~” He argued in the same kind of voice.

“You’re learning~” Zylah cackled, before giving him a smile that sent a chill down his spine. “Even better I don’t have to pull my punches anymore~”

(Shit.) He cursed as the Shadow Dancer blurred out of existence.

Scene Consequences

-Malice Vial Consumed

--Remaining: 2

-Gained (1 + (Malicious D6 = 4) = 5)XP to Ink Tags

--*Power Level Up* Ink Tags Lv. 3 (2/8)

-Thanks to Zylah’s training and previous experience, gained New Skill Slyness at Lv. 2 (0/6)

--+(Skill Level) to all checks about hiding things from others and knowing when someone is keeping something hidden.

---

“Not bad.” Zylah told him as the sun began to set. “You were actually starting to get the hang of things at the end there.”

He was in such a level of pain and exhaustion that he couldn’t form a proper response beyond giving her the middle finger.

Zylah gave him a snort of amusement before walking over and crouching over him. “Just so we’re clear. Don’t make me wait tomorrow, or I’ll beat you down twice as hard the next time the Doc has us ‘train’. Got it?”

“Fuck… you…”

“Not on your best day.” Zylah laughed before getting up. “See you tomorrow, Josh.”