Marvel: The Rise of Paragon - Chapter 4

(New title for this series, previous one was a placeholder! - I finished this one a bit ago, just forgot to post it!)

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Chapter 4

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Training. Training. Training.

2 weeks had passed since his first outing, and Alexander had spent the majority of that time training.

'I'm not bulletproof, not yet.' The shots fired down into the water, random as they might have been, were a sort of wake up call.

He was confident and probably a bit too bold, but he wasn't stupid.

'I need to be able to react and teleport in an instant.' The same applied for all of his Spells – he wasn't sure if it was because they were only 1 Star, but he was able to get his cast time down to a fraction of second, from the original roughly 1 second window it took when he first started.

'Will stronger Spells take longer to cast?' He'd find out when he next leveled up, he supposed.

Right now, he was practicing underwater yet again.

In New York City, there really wasn't many places where a guy could practice his newfound Superpowers in peace.

Underwater, however, he had practically free reign. As long as he stayed well below the water line, even the most heavyset ships wouldn't touch him, and he could practice freely.

'Telekinetic Hand!' He cast the Spell, maintaining his concentration.

'Telekinetic hand!' He cast the Spell a second time.

'Careful…' Alexander frowned as he controlled the two Telekinetic Hands, each one responding to the commands his brain sent out.

Controlling one Telekinetic Hand wasn't that difficult… but controlling two took a huge increase in concentration.

Alexander carefully guided one hand to pick up a large rock sitting on the sea floor, while the other hand held up a large, thick chunk of rock in front of his body, shielding him.

'Nice.' It'd been about a week since he started trying to control two hands, and about two days since he finally got the hang of it.

This was the only Spell, of those he possessed, that could be cast multiple times effectively.

Casting Barkskin twice made him feel physically ill and sluggish – it definitely thickened his skin more, but was far too unpleasant to hold for more than a few seconds.

Casting Recovery Aura twice simply replaced the previous Aura.

As Alexander dropped the rocks, satisfied with his efforts, he took a moment to admire his new outfit.

Blue lines running up the sides of a thick black leather shirt. A long pair of black leather pants, lined with dark blue, connecting to a set of black shoes and socks.

Hidden beneath his leather shirt were several set of regimented metal plates, locked into place, and lining parts of the front and back of suit - these plates were specially designed for body armor use, and part of the loot he had pilfered from the Russian Mafia.

Finally, to cap it all of, covering his face was a full black fabric mask, with plastic eye coverings, concealing his identity. He'd even added a few blue markings on the mask, trying to make it look more distinct. The mask also hooked into his leather shirt, securing it in place.

He'd finished his First Gen Supersuit 3 days ago, dubbed Marcus 1, in honor of the big man himself, Iron Man, and his Mark 1.

It wasn't exactly the fanciest Supersuit, he'd be the first to admit, but for his first attempt with a budget, he thought he'd done a pretty damn good job. At the bare minimum, it actually looked like a distinct outfit a Hero might wear, and not an arts and crafts project.

As for why he picked black and blue – well, blame the Perk Lottery for giving him underwater-based powers.

Alexander began to swim through the water, sticking near the shore. He kept his Telekinetic Hands active, trailing behind him as he moved. After a few moments, he sild under a pair of large docks that connected to a large riverwalk, surfacing in the shadows of the dock.

A few curious fish came up near him, before swimming off as he shooed them away.

Alexander listened to the chatter coming from the dock above him, spying on the world above.

"…it was not that far, Jacob!"

"Come on, Alexis! A half-marathon is huge!"

"The markets crashing again, they say its because Stark got kidnapped."

"Can one company really have that big an impact?"

"Mom, I want ice cream!"

"…"

If there was one thing Alexander had learned, in the two weeks now since his burgeoning Superhero career had started…

It was that no one expected to be spied on from underwater.

It just wasn't something anyone checked or guarded against.

On land? Sure.

The air? Sure.

The sea? …nope.

'This is all useless…' He sighed.

Despite the fact that he could creep on people freely, it'd been more than 2 weeks since he found any useful information.

He really did get lucky, finding that first arms shipment.

People really just didn't seem to talk about their illegal activities as often as he'd hoped.

'Hell's Kitchen was a bust, too.' He rubbed his forehead through his mask.

Hell's Kitchen, as it turned out, wasn't quite the heap of crime and corruption that he remembered. In fact, the area was much nicer than it had been in Daredevil.

It took him a while to figure out, but he finally remembered why that was the case.

'The alien invasion hasn't happened yet!' He vaguely remembered Loki bringing in a bunch of aliens and invading New York. It was the first big Avengers moment, or something like that.

Hell's Kitchen only truly went to hell after that.

'That reminds me, Thor's hammer crashed down near that New Mexico city that sounded like Punt Anti-something?' He didn't know why he remembered this tidbit just now… but he filed the information away for later. That didn't happen for like… 3 years? In November? October? Eh, he'd figure it out.

'Regardless.' He shook his head.

By no means was New York City crime free… but he wasn't yet willing to just teleport around in the open-air searching for it yet.

'Not until I'm more bulletproof, or get Spidey-senses or something.' Exposing himself now also meant getting SHIELD/Hydra's attention.

There was so much he could change about this world's grim future – all that potential would be wasted, if he let himself die in an alley simply because he was impatient.

'Hmm…' He frowned for a few moments.

Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters existed, he'd found after doing some searching. That meant mutants were real, which meant Magneto was real, as was the Hellfire Club.

This world wasn't quite identical to the MCU he'd seen in the movies, but that made sense – there was a ton of stuff the movies didn't show.

'Should I seek out the Sorcerer Supreme?' It was something he'd been considering for a while.

'No. Not yet.' He shook his head as he drifted near the edge of the docks, preparing to leave.

Not before he was able to defend himself. It wasn't that he didn't trust her… but he wasn't willing to talk to her before he could capably escape, just in case his extra-dimensional memories, and the Gamer System he possessed, were a problem. He technically was born on this Earth, so maybe he'd be fine... but he really just wasn't sure.

And, if he was being honest…

He didn't like asking other people for help.

He was fiercely independent and he would do things his way.

'Besides, she already knew the future, and she didn't act to change anything.' She possessed the Time Stone, after all.

What if she was opposed to him altering the future more?

'And staying at Kamar-Taj would make my location public to the TVA.' It was another factor keeping him on edge.

His actions were definitely going to mess up the Sacred Timeline. Maybe he hadn't made a big enough stir, yet, to be noticed? Regardless, it was only a matter of time.

Either way, he needed to play his cards smart from this point on.

'Maybe, I'll just-'

A woman screamed.

His head jerked up, adrenaline spiking as several other people also began to yell,

And-

He saw a helicopter going down in flames, about 200 meters out.

Alexander moved without thinking.

'Blink!'

'Blink!'

'Barkskin.'

'Blink!'

'…'

He teleported over and over, space distorting around him as he flung himself through the air.

In less than a second, he crossed that 200 meters gap, his teleportation practice paying off.

'I've got 3 seconds before it hits the water.' His thoughts raced his enhanced spatial awareness let him calculate the distance between the crashing helicopter and the sea.

He teleported upwards, maneuvering himself to have a clear view as he commanded his Telekinetic Hands.

With a loud groan, the two invisible Hands slammed into the bottom of the helicopter, straining as they attempted to stop the crashing aircraft.

'It's too much.' The force of the already crashing helicopter, plus its several thousand pounds frame, was too much for him to catch.

'Fight it!' He held out regardless, feeling the strain as his Hands began to slow the helicopter's decent.

A second ticked past, as the helicopter's descent notably slowed, but still crashed down at a speed that would kill everyone on board. Meanwhile, Alexander began to fall with it, crashing towards the ocean as he fell from the air.

An idea struck him.

'Blink.' Alexander teleported under the helicopter directly, at the maximum range his hands could handle.

The hulking behemoth of metal hurtled down towards him, in a very intimidating fashion as bits of metal and flame broke off.

'Blink.' His heart pounded in his chest as he matched pace with the helicopter, relying more on his spatial awareness than any other sense.

'Blink.' It slowed further, but still too fast, as he teleported down once again, matching his Hand's max range.

'Blink.' He hit the water, his Barkskin letting him tank the impact with ease.

Immediately, he felt his strength begin to grow, as his Underwater Native Perk enhanced his body.

'Blink.' Just a split second before the helicopter crashed, he teleported as far down as he could, adding several hundred pounds of force to his Hands, slowing the chopper even more.

A loud splash shook the air as the helicopter collided with the sea, sending up turbulent waves. The impact shook the already damaged vehicle apart, sending out a cascade of debris.

Alexander teleported upward, his heart in his throat, as he surfaced.

'Did I slow it enough?!'

His Hands ripped the debris apart, tearing off a metal door frame that was on fire, tossing it into the water behind him and…

Revealing a pair of unconscious, bleeding women, a small, screaming child, and the pilot, a groggy looking male with a large, bloody gash on his forehead.

'They're alive!'

He cast his Recovery Aura Spell and teleported into the middle of the group.

"Shh, it's going to be okay." He grabbed the child first, a four or five-year old boy, scooping him up with one arm.

He then carefully maneuvered one of his Telekinetic Hands to peel back a metal beam that was covered the two unconscious women, preventing them from moving. His other Telekinetic Hand was under the wreck, helping keep it afloat.

The Recovery Aura's power immediately went into effect, granting everyone on the wreck Minor Regeneration (1 Star).

Alexander watched as the bloody gash on the pilot's forehead began to slowly seal up. A patch of bloody bruises and burns on one of the unconscious women's shoulder began to heal, while the other unconscious woman slowly began to stir.

'I need to get them to land.' The smell of gasoline tainted the air, as did smoldering smoke and embers. This whole helicopter was liable to explode at any point.

He looked down at the whimpering child in his arms.

'Will Blink bring him with me?' He had never tested his Ability on another human.

As soon as he asked himself that question, instinctively, he realized that it could.

When he obtained Blink, he also obtained an intuitive understanding into how his power worked.

Without hesitation, he teleported back and forth, ferrying each passenger out of the burning wreck, one after another, dropping them off on the nearby riverwalk.

A large crowd had gathered by this point, dozens of people holding out their phones as they recorded his actions.

"He… he teleported!"

"Did you see?! He slowed that copter down!"

As he dropped off the final survivor, the pilot, he noticed that a man and a woman had rushed forward from the crowd, and were attending the injured.

"I'm a nurse!" Another woman rushed forward, joining the group.

"Everyone." Alexander interrupted them, stepping forward and letting his Recovery Aura do its work, as seawater dripped down off him.

"Please step back." He needed to stand where they were sitting for his Aura to cover everyone.

"What do-" He didn't bother waiting for their response, as he swooped his two Telekinetic Hands forward, picking up those in his way.

A loud series of gasps rang out as the crowd backed off, staring at his clear display of Superpowers in shock. From their perspective, it looked like he had just made two people float out of his way with just his words.

'Well, this isn't ideal.' He thought to himself as he focused.

He knelt down in place, watching as the injuries and burns on the passengers slowly began to heal. Another series of shouts and gasps rang out as people began to point, watching the miraculous scene in shock.

"He's healing them!"

"Dios mio!"

"It's a miracle!"

This was going to expose his existence to the world.

To SHIELD/Hydra.

To everyone.

'Whatever.'

He wasn't ready…

But you don't always get to choose your time.

'Heroes have to act, whether they're ready or not.'

He had made his decision long ago, deciding on the ideals he would pursue.

A blue screen flickered into existence in front of him, that he promptly ignored.

The situation wasn't irreparable. He still had his secret lair, and his powers made escape from mortal means relatively easy.

"No need to fear, everyone!" He decided to embrace the moment, turning it into an opportunity, and giving the crowd a friendly wave as he stood up.

"For I, Paragon, am here!" He announced his Superhero name with a hint of flair.

There was a stunned silence for a few moments, as the entire crowd stared at him. Alexander faced down their stares, holding his head high as his Recovery Aura continued to do his work.

That moment passed and…

One person began to clap.

Then, another. Soon, a round of cheers broke out from the crowd!

"That was awesome!"

"Holy… he's a Superhero!"

"Paragon! Paragon!"

Alexander grinned beneath his mask, staring at the sea of phones recording him and the cheers that followed.

'Well… that's one way to go viral!' He glanced down at the screen that had flickered into existence, and…

His smile widened.

[You have gained experience – Level up!]

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