Act 11: Got Them Toon Hands

--- Joshua ---

Having most of the day to himself before he had to meet Zylah for his ‘training’ he decided to head to the park and try working on an… idea he’d had after seeing how his Toonification affected Buddy.

“Alright, so… how should I do this?” He wondered aloud, while eyeing his hand. “Let’s try this…”

He coated his palm in ink before rubbing it across his other, only to frown when rather than leaving Ink behind his skin seemed to absorb it completely instead.

“Okay, so… I can’t use Ink on myself…” He frowned, staring at the unfaded ink he’d spread across his hand. “Does that mean you’re limited to the hand that makes you or… is it something else?”

Clenching his inked hand into a fist he focused on the connection between himself and his ink, before twisting it the same way he did when he’d been experimenting with Toonifying Buddy. Only unlike with the baseball bat his ink refused to work on his hands.

“Come on, damn it.” He cursed, twisting the ink every which way until he felt something click in the back of his mind and a weird creepy crawling feeling spread through his hand. Almost as if it’d fallen asleep on him for no apparent reason.

“Okay… got something here.” He grimaced, shaking the feeling out of his hands at least until he’d noticed there was no ink on his hands despite the tingling feeling within them.

“Weird…” He couldn’t help but comment as he looked his hand over, having expected… something to happen if he managed to Toonify them. (Maybe turning into gloves like all those old cartoon characters used to wear.)

He paused at that thought. (Note to self: Get stylish gloves at a later date.) (No wait, wouldn’t that get in the way of my ink?) (But style is more important than power!)

A sudden spike of pain had him gripping his face in the hopes of forcing it to pass, and while a faint ache remained he felt it lessen enough for him to continue with his attempts to Toonify his hands. Of course this just meant he gave himself the additional discomfort of pins and needles stabbing throughout his hand.

“Fuck…” He whimpered, eyeing his hand, only to realize he’d forgotten to apply ink to it.

“That’s… odd?” His eyes narrowed, not actually sure how odd it was given how he barely understood his powers beyond ‘Ink does stuff’ and ‘Wonderland does other stuff’.

Once the feeling returned to his hand he focused on his hand and twisted the same way he had when toonifying things, before feeling his hand fall asleep once more.

“So… it’s not based on the ink?” He realized, as he began to process just what that meant.

(If it’s not based on my ink then is it a Wonderlander power?) He frowned, before remembering that. (I haven’t fixed anything other than the stage, and I… I don’t think this is connected to that…)

It was just a feeling but a strong one that was telling him that he was right about this.

“Then what is it? If it’s not connected to my ink then it has to be something to do with the Cabaret…” (The Cartoon Cabaret.) A little voice reminded him.

“No way…” He blinked, before looking down at his hands. “It can’t be that… can it?”

(Only one way to know for sure…)

Gaining a determined look, he took a boxing stance similar to what Zylah had half way beaten into him nearly a week before and punching the air with one hand, ‘Toonifying’ it as he did so, before retracting it and repeating with the other while his first shook off the pins and needles. (Here’s hoping that ‘enhanced physique’ thing helps me out here.)

---

It took him most of the day, and he could feel himself pushing that whole ‘Unlimited Stamina’ thing by the end of it, but eventually when he threw a punch with his ‘Toonified’ hand he watched his hand nearly double in size before shrinking back to normal.

“F-finally!” He laughed, before repeating with his other hand and getting a similar result.

(Best part, I’m hardly even noticing the whole pins and needles thing!)

Grinning madly, he ‘Toonified’ his hands without throwing a punch and watched them expand to nearly twice their size before shrinking down once more.

“Freaky…” He couldn’t help but smile at the feeling of figuring out a new power so quickly.

Unfortunately this feeling was ruined by his phone alarm ringing, for what he realized was the third time. “Oh, shit I’m going to be late!”

Scene Consequences

-Thanks to Experiment Synergy gained 1XP to Brawling and Toon Enhanced Strength.

--Currently: Toon Enhanced Strength Lv. 1 (1/4) and Brawling Lv. 2 (1/6)

-Thanks to Experiment Synergy gained additional progress towards new Power.

--New Power Progress: Toon Hands (2/2)

---New Power: Toon Hands Lv. 1 (0/4)- (Costs 1 Focus or Stamina) Expand hands dealing (Power Level) additional damage to any unarmed attack or ability. (Note: Damage only applies if ability deals damage in the first place.)

---

Luckily thanks to a mix of his enhanced Acrobatics as well as the skills Zylah had helped him develop during their previous training session, he was not in fact late. (Barely.)

“Cutting it close.” Zylah told him, having had her own phone in hand as he ran into the warehouse.

“Close, but close is plenty when I’m not late.” He pointed out, really beginning to feel the burn in his arms and legs.

“Mm-hmm.” Zylah shrugged, eyeing him over. “Tell me this supposedly ‘unlimited’ Stamina of yours, how hard have you pushed it exactly?”

“Um, I’ve run several miles in half an hour?” He knew that was significantly better than most given how running a mile in ten was supposed to be good if he was remembering his P.E. class. (Which admittedly I might not be.)

“Alright, then in that case the Doc wants us to do a bit of endurance training.” Zylah told him. “Admittedly it wasn’t our actual lesson plan, but he wanted me to make sure you weren’t… misjudging this one due to poor testing.”

“Well… what was the lesson plan then?” He couldn’t help but frown.

“Lock Picking.” Zylah explained simply.

“Oh…” (That could’ve been useful…)

“Come on, we’ve only got a couple of hours to do this.” The Shadow Dancer told him.

“Right.” (How bad can this really be?)

---

Very, apparently.

“So what have we learned?” Zylah asked, calmly standing over where he’d collapsed after she’d made him run several miles through the forest.

“I do not… in fact have… unlimited stamina…” He admitted, every breath agony.

“Glad you figured that out now, rather than when you disappointed some poor girl.” Zylah grinned in (sadistic) amusement.

“Fuck… you…” He growled out.

Zylah merely tilted her head curiously. “I thought we just established your lack of stamina though?”

“In all seriousness, be glad you figured this out now, rather than while being chased by half a dozen cops and heroes.” She told him, her features hardening as she looked down on him. “Remember there is no such thing as ‘Unlimited Stamina’ be it mental or physical eventually some part of you will begin to give out if you push yourself too hard in a fight. And this goes double for your Healing Factor, because if you push that too its breaking point, you won’t survive the backlash. Got it?”

“Got it.” He sighed, feeling a bit of a damper due to the fact that she’d pointed out the flaws in his own power.

Unfortunately, as bitter as it was, he knew this was a lesson that would probably save his life at some point, so better to learn in the beginning rather than when a winning streak broke. (After all I’ll only be a star for as long as I keep on my game.)

Scene Consequences

-Gained 5XP to Healing Factor

--*Power Level Up* Healing Factor Lv. 3 (1/8)

-Power Misconception Correction: Stamina is not unlimited, but gains an additional point per Power Level.

-New Power Information: Healing Factor increases Max Physical HP each Level. (If Max HP hits 0 Josh is knocked unconscious, if it hits -Max PHP he will die.)

-Due to being made more aware of his limits, Focus and Stamina counters unlocked.

---

“So what are you going to do now?” Zylah asked him, after giving him enough time to catch his breath.

“Um, I was probably going to head back home.” He admitted, thrown a little by her uncharacteristic curiosity about him outside of their training. “There’s a couple of things I wanted to look into.”

“Cool.” Zylah nodded, before smirking. “Meaning you forgot.”

“Forgot?” He frowned, sitting up. “Forgot what?”

“It’s been about a week since your last talk with the Doc.” Zylah reminded him while stretching a bit.

“Shit! Was that today?” He thought he’d had another day before that meeting.

“Yep, and since you forgot that means I get to drag you to said meeting.” Zylah told him cheerfully.

“Oh…” He figured she’d be annoyed having to keep more of an eye on him than she had to. Zylah pulled a shadow wreathed leg back, as her cheerfulness clicked. “Oh.”

---

*Scene Interrupt*

“You know, just once I’d appreciate it if you guys didn’t knock me out, before dragging me here.” He growled, feeling a disturbingly familiar concrete floor. “I mean I already know where we are so it’s kind of pointless.”

“It amuses me, therefore it’s not truly pointless.” The Malice Doctor argued from his usual place at the table before closing the file he was looking at.

“I’m assuming this is another power progress report?” He asked, picking himself off the ground.

“In a way.” The Malice Doctor admitted. “And while we do want that progress report, this is more to test your viability as an agent.”

“My viability?” He frowned, before blinking as he took his seat at the table. “So you’re actually recruiting me now?”

“If you can pass this test.” The Malice Doctor told him.

“And what’s the test?” He couldn’t help but ask, even as he began looking around for Zylah or whoever they were bound to make him fight.

“You need to successfully infiltrate and rob a given target.” The Malice Doctor answered. “The more you take the higher you’ll score, with additional points based on how fast you are, if you’re caught, how well you fend off potential attackers, and a few other things you don’t need to know about just yet.”

(Well, I already knew these guys were criminals. It makes sense that their initiation would be committing a crime.) He had to admit to himself at the very least.

“What happens if I get caught?” He knew he wouldn’t like the answer to that question but felt the need to get it out of the way. “I mean if I end up in jail you lose your test subject, and there’s always a chance they can get something out of me with a Deviant interrogator.”

“Don’t worry, we have… contingencies for both of those scenarios.” The Malice Doctor assured him.

(I’m guessing one of those contingencies is a bullet through my head.) He wasn’t sure if that would kill him with his healing factor, but he wasn’t in a hurry to test it either.

“So who’s the target?” He asked with a reluctant but resigned sigh.

“Your choice.” The Malice Doctor told him, before spreading the files he’d been looking at across the table. “We’re willing to accept a robbery of one of these three targets, a mall jewelry store, a small gang safe house, or a… rough pawn shop.”

While he only glanced at the files, he was still smart enough to piece together why these were his targets. (Small enough to not bring down an army, but still big enough to have a threat level.)

“Alright…” As long as it meant he had the power to be a star he was pretty much in for a penny in for pound at this point. “When exactly do I need to hit one of these places?”

“Two weeks from now, though we’ll need to know which you intend to hit a week before then so that we know where to set up our contingencies.” The Malice Doctor explained, before warning him that, “If our aid proves necessary it will reflect poorly on your testing scores, however.”

“I expected as much.” He shrugged, hoping he could get himself to a decent enough level to do this before his deadline was up. (It can’t be that hard, most criminals are non-Deviants. With my powers I can do this easy.)

“Good, now with that business concluded, we can move on to your actual progress report.” The Malice Doctor informed him. “Given your previous focus on learning about new powers, perhaps we should start there this time.”

“Right…”

He opened his mouth to start talking about his Wonderland, before closing it as some part of him warned him that although Madness was the exact thing these people were after, it was also the one thing he shouldn’t let them touch. (The Cartoon Cabaret is mine!)

Blinking at the sudden knife through his skull, he shook his head before raising one of his hands and expanding it. “I guess we can start with this.”

“Interesting.” The Malice Doctor commented, staring at his hand before beginning to ask questions and mumble a number of hypotheses to himself.

(Yeah, I don’t think I’m going to trust the mad scientist to leave my Wonderland un-dissected.)

Scene Consequences

-Quest Updated: Opening Act- The Malice Doctor wants us to rob a place to prove we can be an asset.

--Investigate the targets and pick which one we’re going to hit.

-Gained 5 Malice Vials.