Act 1- First Day Training

--- Joshua ---

“Okay, this is the day you’ve been waiting for since you were in grade school.” He told himself, stretching out his limbs a bit as he looked around the park to make sure no one was around. “You finally got powers, and you’ve got a day off from school, it’s time for some power testing.”

He was fairly certain that was half of the reason the Malice Merchants had chosen to pick him up the day before his weekend, but given how it gave him some time to figure his powers out, he wasn’t going to complain.

“Alright, first thing to test…” He began, opening a notebook he’d gotten back years ago when he’d first hit the age that Chris had unlocked his own powers. (Back before he let himself get canceled.)

He shook his head at his migraine, it wasn’t nearly as crippling as the day before so he was fully willing to just power through it as a day-after side-effect. “First thing to test is my new baseline. I need to figure out what I’m capable of before I’ve got any actual training in.”

From what he knew all Deviant powers would develop and grow stronger with a bit of effort, use, and training. If his artificial powers followed the same pattern -something the malice merchant had implied- then it wouldn’t hurt for him to know where he was starting from.

Which is why for the first time in his life he began exercising outside of P.E..

Or trying to anyway.

“Ten… Elev- Fuck!” He cursed falling flat on his face as his arms trembled far more than he could handle. “Okay… strength enhancement was not a thing I got.” (That or I am just severely out of shape.)

He wasn’t willing to admit that might be part of his problem, so instead of pacing himself, he forced himself onto his feet even as he spat some grass out of his mouth.

“Alright, just because ‘super strength’ was a bust, doesn’t mean ‘super speed’ is.” He told himself not willing to let (one single itty-bitty) setback stop him.

“Now then um, let’s see here standard time to run a hundred meter dash is about… fifteen seconds for a non-athlete.” He read off of his notebook, before pulling his phone out of his pocket and opening an app that functioned as both a stopwatch and distance counter. “I’m sure I can beat that easy with a bit of effort.”

He could not.

In fact his actual time was nearly double the standard.

“...” He inhaled deeply before exhaling (after a solid minute of gasping in agony anyway). “So… super speed is a nope too. Disappointing, but not unexpected.”

(Really shouldn’t have used Physical as my dump stat.)

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

He pinched the bridge of his nose, before sighing once more as he began staring at his hand as he began to produce the black substance from it. “Guess you’re all I’ve got to work with right now…” (Got to start low-budget until I catch that big break.)

Just because he had his foot in the door to the world of Masks, didn’t mean he was actually good enough to be a Mask just yet. (But I will be…)

Nodding to himself he tagged a nearby tree before resetting the distance counter on his phone and starting to walk towards the park entrance. “Let’s see just how far you can go little buddy.”

After about half a dozen steps he felt his connection to his tag beginning to fray, and with one more it snapped. “About three, four meters…”

(That’s not a lot…) He grimaced, before walking back to the tree he’d started with.

Looking in the general area he’d left his tag revealed a very faint mark, even fainter than his tags usually were after fading.

“Can’t reactivate them either.” He sighed after a minute of trying just that.

For most people this would be the moment they became discouraged with the power they’d gotten out of the lottery.

For someone who’d spent a lifetime craving any power from the lottery, there was only one response to be had.

“Just going to have to train you up until everyone is scared of you.” He told his power as he stamped a second tag onto the tree, before beginning a light jog back towards his house.

And every time he felt one of his tags snap he’d reach out and tag something else, be it a building, a car, a lamp post, whatever he could reasonably get his hands on would get tagged as he pushed his limit to see just how long he could keep this up before his well ran dry.

Surprisingly enough he actually managed to make it about half way back to the Saint’s Crossing before he found he couldn’t produce anymore of the black stuff that made up his tags.

Coming to a complete stop, he ducked into an alley where no one could see him before focusing on his hand and trying to force out one more tag.

This proved to be a bad idea as not only did yet another knife of pain spike through his skull, but his stomach began to audibly growl as if he hadn’t eaten in days.

“Fuck!” He cursed, curling in on himself until both pains began to fade.

“When the well runs dry don’t push it. Got it.” He nodded to his powers, before continuing his jog towards the bar where he realized he’d just jogged close to three miles at a decent pace and wasn’t even winded in the slightest.

“Huh… Super Stamina… If I pace myself at least.” He added, remembering how winded he was after attempting his dash. (Then again I did recover from that pretty quickly too… Wait, recover?)

Now that he was thinking about it, he remembered he had a healing factor. (And it stands to reason that it increases my overall recovery rate, stamina included. Meaning as long as I pace myself I can host a whole marathon.)

Turning away from the bar he took off on another light jog, intending to find out just how long he could go before he had to stop.

A growling sound caused him to skid to a stop after just a few steps.

“Though I should probably make sure I’m running on a full tank when I do that.” He admitted to his stomach as he turned back to the bar, feeling that despite a few setbacks, he’d had a fairly productive morning.

(And this is just the start.)

Scene Consequences

-Due to experiment synergies between ((???) Production + (???) Tagging) and (General + Healing Factor) gained 2XP to Healing Factor, (???) Production, and (???) Tagging.

--Currently: All three are now at Lv. 1 (2/4).

-New Information available about (???) Tagging and Healing Factor.

-Unlocked new testing ideas in the menu.