Crawling out of my window, I made my way down the side of my house, being careful not to fall until I got close enough to the ground that I could jump down. Landing on the ground, I dusted myself off pulling on the hood of my blue Mrs.Wonder jacket, before heading to find a location to try out what Nox could do.

West city was a crowded place with not a lot of places where a person could find time to themselves, luckily for me with how often villains attack the city there are always several construction sites littering the city incomplete and abandoned. Never thought I would be glad the mayor was letting our city fall apart.

It was pitch black outside, so as I made my way to an abandoned construction I only saw the occasional person, a good sign for what I was about to do. Arriving at the site, I made my way over to the chain-link fence surrounding the place. Looking around the site, it seemed like this was supposed to replace an office building, thinking back to it I was pretty sure this place and been destroyed during a fight with the villain Stormer, now that had been exciting, even if I only got to see the tail end of it. It was too bad for the people that used to work here though, just like half the other projects the mayor ordered it was quickly abandoned with the place being left as is.

Approaching the chain-link fence that surrounded the place I climbed my way over using my superior dexterity to hop over like a cat, and definitely not almost fall face-first into the dirt. The place was just like you'd expect old equipment and material littered everywhere with the partially completed first story of the building left unattended. Walking into the building, I found an interior wall to my liking before sitting down and preparing to practice.

“Nox, come on out.”

Saying that the dagger, Nox appeared in my grasp, gripping the handle tightly. This was the first time I had taken the time to examine it since it transformed back at my house, all I got to say is it was really going for that dark broody aesthetic. A blade white as bone, and a pitch-black handle it was just asking to be called evil.

As I looked at the blade a realization came to my mind, I had never asked how much of a sacrifice was needed exactly for this to work. Looks like I would just have to wing it.

Taking a deep breath I let myself get one last feel for the knife before sticking out my left arm pulling up my sleeve and hovering the blade over my exposed arm.

“Ok Molly, it’s like a shot. You got to get it over with.”

I sat in that spot for what seemed like a good thirty minutes struggling with myself over whether I should do this. Allowing myself to overthink the whole thing as the idea of cutting open my arm became less and less appealing.

So this whole knife thing may be more challenging than I expected but enough being a coward let’s just do this so before the more sensible part of me can convince me otherwise again. SUcking up my fear I quickly brought the blade down onto my arm creating a long gash down my forearm trying not to cut myself too deep. As I cut myself instead of immediately saying a spell, I screamed my head off,

“HOLY FUCKING SHIT!”

Okay so probably not the best decision I’ve ever made in my life, but, hey what wouldn’t you do to get superpowers?

Blood trickling down my arm and breathing through my teeth, I eventually fought through the pain and tried to use the first power-like ability I could think of. I pulled upon my memory of Hydroman fighting some local crooks on the news, and lifting my right hand and pointing the tip of the knife towards the wall in front of me I said the words

“Water Jet.”

With just those words, a high-pressure jet stream of water launched from the tip of the blade, punching a relatively small hole through the wall. I let out a few shakey breaths as I peered at the damage.

“Ok, I can work with this.”

My adrenaline was pumping with the pain in my arm slowly dissipating and falling to the back of my mind, although I could still feel the blood steadily trickling down my arm. I probably should have brought some bandages. I’ll have to note that, so I don’t forget next time I come out here. Pulling down my sleeve to cover the wound it was going to have to do for right now. Now was the time to celebrate.

While reveling in my newfound powers, I was shaken from my stupor when I heard a car pulling up nearby. I panicked and rushed to find cover leaning close to a wall to try and hide. It would have been smart to just wait it out and hope they would eventually leave, but once again my curiosity eventually got the best of me and I moved up to a nearby window peeping my head out to get a look at the car.

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Looking out the window, I saw a black van with people standing in front of it in hoods. Yeah, that’s not suspicious at all. After a few minutes, another car pulled into the site. And out stepped a man who stood at what looked at least 7 feet tall with a bulky build. He was wearing a brown trench coat, but his face was what drew my attention. It was covered in what looked like electrical scars running along his face and up and around his bald skull, which wasn't all even from a distance his skin looked charred and I imagine if I was close enough it might smell like an overcooked barbecue. And with Bloodshot eyes, the man certainly had the looks to be a villain.

Getting out of the car soon after was a woman with long blonde hair tied up into a ponytail and glasses, wearing what looked like a tacky movie secretary outfit along with high heels that made even me feel unstable. In her hands was a large briefcase. The two of them approached the hooded figures from before and began talking although I couldn’t hear what they were saying, after a few words were spoken, the women opened the case, revealing what looked like some futuristic hand cannon.

Ok, that confirms it. This is some kind of illegal weapons trade. The perfect chance for me to start my hero career had just appeared right in front of me. I couldn't let this chance go by no matter how much my inner Steph said this was a bad idea.

I had made up my mind, this was going to be my grade hero debut. But I was going to need a mask, I looked down at the blade still in my hand with a small smirk, let’s see just how helpful you can be Nox. Pulling up my bloodied sleeve I placed the blade against the cut of my wound and although it had stopped bleeding by now I could feel it as Nox began soaking up as much blood as he could drawing not only from my wound but also the blood on my sleeve. Letting it sit there for a few moments I pulled it away from my arm pointing the blade toward the ground at my feet. I said some simple words.

“Create Mask.”

At my feet, a small black and white mask covered in tiny chibi pandas, the thing looked more fit for a preschooler than a hero. I pulled the blade close to my face whispering aggressively to it.

“You think this is funny Nox?”

I got no response from the blood-hungry demon, it would just have to do I guess, picking it up I quickly looked it over. The mask would only cover the bottom part of my face which wasn't ideal, but I hoped my hood would make up for the rest.

But before I headed out to confront them, I cut my arm a second time I didn't want to risk going out there and my powers fizzling out because I didn’t give Nox enough blood. This time I was more prepared for the pain and combined that with my adrenaline and I was able to handle the pain of the cut much better this time around.

Making sure my hood was pulled on tight, I climbed through the window, knife in hand, and walked towards the group as confidently as I could before eventually stopping several meters away from them and pointing the tip of my blade toward them. Calling out.

“Stop evildoers.”

I know it's cheesy, but I’m working on the fly. So cut me some slack.

The group of criminals slowly turned toward me and the two men from the van looked panicked while the Tall man and his partner just looked at me with indifference. But as I stood there, I could feel the Tall Guy eyeing me before he turned to the men from the van.

“You were followed.”

This was the first time I heard his voice. It was rough and low your standard villain voice, but if I’m being honest, way scarier in real life than in the movies or news, but's too late to back out now. I wasn’t the only one panicking. The two guys from the van were as well, with one of them talking to the tall guy.

“We promise, man, we were careful. This must be a coincidence, yeah, just a coincidence.”

The tall man looked back at me and then turned his towards the van guy a scowl on his face, picking up the cannon from the briefcase and tossing it to the man. The scared guy barely managed to catch the thing with it fumbling in his hands almost falling to the ground.

“Deal with this, quickly.”

Then he and the women got back in their car and drove off, which I wasn’t in a position to stop since I was more focused on berating myself for my poor life choices.

One of the remaining men swiftly brought me back to my senses, calling out to me, “Sorry kid, just business.” Before he pointed the cannon and fired it at me, launching what looked like a sonic blast toward me at lightning speed.

I barely had time to react as I hurriedly pointed my knife toward the blast and shouted the first thing I could think of “SHIELD!”

As soon as I said it, a purplish force field began forming in front of me but it only managed to partially form before the blast hit it and subsequently me, the shield cracking and folding due to the force of the blast, sending me flying into and through the wall behind me.

As I crashed through the wall, I could feel my head smash into it giving me what I could only assume was a concussion. Suffering from whiplash and with my head still ringing I crawled my way to my knees as I pushed the relatively light rubble off of me, Thank god this wasn’t a fully built house and it was only drywall. It felt like the blast had broken at least a few of my ribs, I had to briefly claw through the rubble looking for the blade that had dropped, I could feel blood falling down my face as I did so. I guess I busted open my head well, after I found the blade I unsteadily stood up taking uneasy steps back toward the two men. I lifted my arm with it shaking uncontrollably and pointed the tip of my blade at them. Mumbling unintelligibly to myself.

“I might be in over my head.”