Chương 26: Bounty

Placing a foot onto the Vulture's back, right between his shoulder blades, Mason pressed while staring at the core and asked, "Were you here to kill me?" Vulture struggled to look up, but he still strained his neck to do so. His eyes were fixated on the core inside Mason's palm though, his expression manic as he shouted, "Do you even know what you are holding, you fool?! Put it back!" Mason snorted, "I'm holding something useless to me; let's hope I won't accidentally break it."

he ignored the despair on Vulture's face and asked again, "So, why were you here? Accident, or something else?" Vulture hesitated, and Spider-Man helpfully said, "Ah, hum, how to say it… You may have a bounty on your head, Sir? Solis? Mr. Solis?" He looked up at the red and blue hero, and mercilessly crushed the core in his hand, earning himself an outraged roar from the Vulture. He ignored him, and said, "The name's Mason, but I don't really care how you call me. So, what's this about a bounty?"

Spider-Man looked around, his uneasiness visible even through the mask as he probed, "No offense, but this is probably not the best place to speak." His gaze lingered on Audrey longer than the others, which was to be expected if they were in the same school. Mason looked at his little sister, but she already had her phone out, filming him as she shouted, "Don't mind me!" Mason rolled his eyes at her and turned back to Spider-Man.

"Alright kid, give me a moment." He then looked down at the fuming Vulture and unceremoniously tore the wings off his back, shredding the machinery and eliminating any chances he had at making an unlikely comeback. The materials were surprisingly brittle. Spider-Man then helped to web him into place. Only after this did Mason take Audrey with him to meet Spider-Man in a nearby alley.

Seeing that Spider-Man was fidgeting under Audrey's scrutiny, clearly uncomfortable and hesitating whether to speak, Mason snorted and said, "What, thought I'd leave my sister alone to meet with you? Come on, tell me what this was about already."

Spider-Man finally settled his gaze onto Mason, and spoke quickly, "I was patrolling as usual when I picked up on some disturbance in a warehouse on the edge of the city, I think it was a deal gone wrong, but it was weird because there were ninjas fighting Russians, and they were actually winning, and being so awesome doing it, but then the Vulture came and-" Mason held up a hand with a sigh, stopping him, "Breathe, kid, you sound like you have a bush burning under your ass."

This caused Spider-Man to choke on his words, and Audrey laughed, approaching Spider-Man with no reservation. Mason's presence made her feel completely safe. She studied him and asked with a chuckle, "Why do you dress up to fight people anyway? Are you a weirdo or something?" He fumbled in an attempt to defend himself, but she did not wait for it, turning to look at Mason with a cheeky grin instead as she rolled her eyebrows, "Maybe I should wear spandex and fight Russians and ninjas too."

Mason did not grant her even a look, much less a response, addressing Spider-Man seriously, "Finish what you were saying, and be concise." Truth was, Mason's mood had turned heavier hearing about the ninjas and Russians. The Russians could be from any number of gangs, but the ninjas could only be the Hand. Although they were often treated as fodder in the comics, they remained an ancient order centuries old, filled with warriors ready to lay down their lives for the order.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. They also happened to be one of those organizations that would not hesitate to go after his family to get to him, so having them show any interest in him was worrying. Mason had already taken some measures to ensure the safety of his family, but he was not some omnipotent protector. Unaware of the trouble Mason felt, but feeling awed by his presence, Spider-Man spilled, "The bosses were fighting inside.

I didn't get the details, but there were pictures of you, and one of the bosses ordered Vulture to kill you. I think they said something about a bounty. It was all very confusing." Mason frowned at the explanation, for it was indeed confusing. Spider-Man's somewhat unreliable account aside, it was already strange to have a meeting about him. After all, Mason had only appeared once before the public, and that was fighting the Hulk and Doom, neither of whom had the motive to attack him, especially not in this way.

So why would the Hand and potentially several other organizations have a meeting about him? Even more confusing was why they would start fighting over such a meeting. Did he hold some kind of importance to them even he was unaware of, or was it simply a coincidence? Tensions that had been brewing for a long time and coincidentally exploded the day they were mysteriously talking about Mason? And was he even the only target?

Spider-Man might have only seen his picture, or he certainly made it sound like it, but he might have missed others. This all was confusing, and very much annoying. Mason thought for a moment before saying, "Alright, thank you for the help, Spider-Man. Audrey, I'm taking you home." Thankfully, Audrey did not kick up a fuss, waving Spider-Man goodbye and following him. For a while, she left Mason brooding silently, but she eventually could not take it any longer and asked, "What are you gonna do?"

Mason snorted a long breath and turned to look at his little sister. Her voice was tinged with disguised worry, and despite being an admittedly decent actor, she still let it slip in. He decided to assuage her worries, "I'm fine. I just need to think about this… maybe reach out to the devil."

"The devil?" Mason smiled, ruffling her head, "Don't worry about it."

After returning Audrey home, Mason did not immediately leave to investigate, returning to his apartment instead. More specifically, he headed straight for his Gravity Room. His enlightenment concerning the Gravity Dao might seem to have come out of nowhere, but the truth was that Mason had been spending just as much time in the Gravity Room as he had been meditating on fire. And now that he finally knew which direction he needed to go in, everything suddenly felt clearer.

Following the Concept of Push, Mason swiftly understood the Concept of Pull. These two Concepts allowed him to apply each of these two properties to foreign objects, either pushing them away or drawing them in. Mason could already think of multiple applications for this power, but he would have to improve his understanding of it to truly turn it into a weapon. He did not stop there either, as Mason then proceeded to take his first step onto the Fire Dao before nightfall, learning the Concept of Ignition.

By holding out his hand, Mason was capable of creating a burst of flames. It was small because he had only just started learning it, and it could hardly burn anyone. Still, Mason could easily use it to ignite a combustible, or blind someone by using it like a flash. For now, be it his Gravity Dao or his Fire Dao, neither of them was very useful, which might have been another reason why Izo had advised him to focus on someone like the Sword Dao or something similar.

Even at a low mastery level, these simpler Daos were exclusively aimed at fighting, so they provided a better boost combat-wise. Elemental Daos like those Mason had learned were much more versatile, meaning they could be used in more situations, but with less efficacy. But that was a limited point of view. If one never went past this rudimentary mastery of Concepts, and fighting prowess was all that mattered, then these combat Daos were certainly superior.

The moment one cast their gaze beyond the Awakening Realm, though, that statement no longer held true. With that in mind, Mason wished he could have continued studying the Dao longer, but with nightfall, the time for action had arrived. The bounty on his head was a problem. That the Hand or Fisk were possibly behind it was cataclysmic. Not simply because of the large powers they represented, but because of the way they did things.

After all, in the comics, it was Fisk that had set a bounty on Peter Parker and his family after the events of Civil War, where Peter unmasked as Spider-Man. Things did not appear to have reached that far yet, but then there still remained the mystery of why exactly they were interested in him, and whether that interest warranted going after his family.

Mason did not intend to bet on that, and assumed the worst: that if they failed to get to him, they would go for his weak point, throwing morality aside like a dirty rag. And as everyone knows, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.