Craig tried to recall all that occurred the day before as to how this change in his body had even occurred. He looked down at his hand as he bit the slice of pizza in his other. Pizza was always his brain food, especially Marcel's, local, pretty cheap and pretty good for the price, and they burnt the crust just right enough for that perfect crunch. Craig looked down at his nails again trying to understand everything that he could do. Better Senses, Scales, Fangs, Claws Strength, Speed and Regeneration. He pondered if there was anything else he could do with this new change in his body, the limits, the setbacks, what can he do exactly?
"Craig can we watch something before I go to bed?" said Mary in her pajamas already still full of energy from the nutella zeppoli—their mutual weakness. She knew she needed to burn out this energy somehow and she knew damn well that Craig wasn't even going to risk walking with her at time in this city, Craig snapped back to thought as he heard Mary chime in with her question. "Did you brush your teeth?" he said "Can we watch something please?" Mary said, trying to dodge the question. It wasn't that she didn't want to brush her teeth, she just wanted to eat more and brush her teeth after the show. Craig narrowed his eyes towards his sister's attempt to dodge the question.
"You dodged the question." "So did you, answer my question." said Mary, now placing her hands on her hips. "I'm older so my question has priority. " "Beauty before age!" Mary retorted.
Craig scowled at his sister's comments over him being old. He's only 17 going on 18, he's not that old yet. He adjusted his glasses slightly before taking a deep breath trying to calm down which failed with his younger sister irritating him a little bit with that age comment. "Listen here you little sh-" "Please Craig? I just want to spend some more time with my favorite big brother!" Mary said with the biggest puppy dog look in her eyes.
Craig automatically fell for it. "Yes we can but you're brushing your teeth right after, then going to bed and I'm picking the show. Now do you want another slice of pizza? " It always works. "Yes please." Mary said as Craig put a slice in the microwave and turned the TV on flipping through channels before seeing one of his favorite movies seeing a teen crawl up a wall slowly. Craig looked at the movie and began to get an idea. Ding. The microwave went off and Craig went to hand the slice to Mary as he grabbed one for himself before changing to channel to a show about a young teen discovering his own powers in Smallville sparking even more ideas in his head as he sat down watching as Mary munched on her slice of pizza.
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Craig took off his glasses and sat down on the carpeted floor or his room sliding out a small crate from under his bed. He carefully lifted off the lid and took out a comic book featuring a superhero in a black and blue suit from the top and then a handful more of other comics before sliding the crate back under his bed. Craig then rested the comics on his bed in front of him while he thought to himself more about everything he did the day before that could lead to his change. First I woke up, had breakfast, took Mary with me to work then with me to take photos then I took her back home, saw Nathan along the way to the dojo, talked with sensei Aiko about the dojo closing then she gave me the… Craig looked over at the Silver Dragon Statue on his desk and his eyes widened; this was the main anomaly that day. Craig thought back on last night and remembered how he thought he saw that statue glowing on his desk but he thought that was impossible, just the reflection of moonlight, right? Craig held the statue in his hands and examined it. He knew Sensei Aiko said it could bring someone good luck but he didn't think that a transformation was part of that package. Craig put his gift back on his desk before looking down at his hands again. I need to test something. Craig took a deep breath and tried to focus in on his hands, after his fight he managed to turn off the scales and fangs and claws before now he wanted to turn them back on. Craig focused his breathing and closed his eyes imagining his fingernails lengthening and sharpening and when he opened them the claws were back. Craig looked at his hands with a slight smirk, proud of being able to bring at least his claws back. He took in another deep breath and concentrated before he watched the claws retract back to his normal fingernails. It was an odd sensation like fixing a spring except the spring was his own fingernails.
"HA!" Craig laughed to himself as he watched this happen; he had some control now over the change his body could undergo even if it was just the claws so far. It was a sign to him that this change granted to him by that statue was something he could control, this might not be the hindrance he thought it was.
Craig repeated this process a few times both out of curiosity and his own personal amusement. This was just the first test he was gonna try tonight, there were still a bunch more he wanted to try.
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"I always wondered how this felt. It's a lot harder than it looks but then again he's sticking to walls with little barbs on his…everywhere. And I'm just well hanging by a…claw." Craig said while clinging to the wall outside of his bedroom window. He wanted to test how good his claws were and how strong he was now and this seemed like the most fun and practical idea. He just didn't predict that this sensation could be both so exhilarating and terrifying. Craig tried to focus as hard as he could on clinging to the wall until a single fly landed on his nose. Annoyed, he instinctively swatted at it with his free hand but he couldn't get the kill just with one hand so he took his other hand out of the wall to clap it dead. He was successful at killing the fly unfortunately for him he wasn't as lucky with continuing to stick to the wall.
Ah. I appear to have miscalculated. Craig thought to himself as he began to fall from the side of his building, panicking a bit forgetting that he had his claws to rely on. Until he landed on top of a dumpster. Falling onto the dumpster hurt a bit but surprisingly not as much as he thought it would. It seems that his durability has gotten higher along with everything else, thankfully, otherwise there's a good chance his already bad back would've gotten a lot worse. The only things that had been damaged were the dumpster's lid, the little pride Craig had left and his sense of smell. The Warren Luck strikes again. Craig thought to himself as another fly landed on his nose. He let out a large exhale from his nose again before stabbing his claw back into the wall to climb back up to his room. He wanted to try wall climbing anyways.
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Craig rolled onto his carpeted floor exhausted and yawned while resting on his back. He swept his bangs off of his forehead and then looked at his outstretched arm before retracting his claws. Craig just wanted to lie there on his carpet for a bit. He looked over again at his desk at his glasses and his gift. Things were really getting more and more different for him. His attention then shifted to the suitcases he had in the corner of his room and the supplies he bought a few weeks ago. That's right, he's got only about 2 weeks till move in. "I wonder how my roommate would react to me being some sort of gecko guy. A lizard man." Craig looked back at the statue again, the most likely source for all of this happening to him. "A Dragon. If I were that guy I'd probably freak the hell out. Whatever, don't wanna think about that right now. " Craig looked at his alarm clock and noticed the time. 12:06. Not that late at night but Craig was still somewhat tired. He should probably go to sleep now though if he wanted to get to work on time and check out that new training place tomorrow. Craig tossed off the hoodie he wore that night and stared at it for a second. He let out a slight snort and chuckle before tossing it underneath his bed along with his baseball cap, in his best interest to keep it hidden for a while. He swapped into his pjs and then wrapped himself into his covers before completely passing out.
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4:15pm
Craig biked down the road at the fastest he's ever gone, one of the benefits to super strength. He stopped in front of Nathan, stepping off his bike. Today was a bit more stressful than the last two for work so heading to this place would be good for him and the trip could give him ideas.
"You ready, Warren?" Nathan said with a wide grin. Craig nodded in reply. "Ready as I'll ever be."Craig chirped "Good, now follow me" Nathan said as he started darting down the street as Craig followed in pursuit a few paces behind. They travelled down the familiar streets of Cifer with the summer heat and winds billowing down their faces. Nathan performed a few tricks down the sidewalk ollieing over a few strays and the occasional person. If you have the skill and precision to show off then why not show off a bit? Nathan of course always did. The pair took a few sharp turns and Craig suddenly wasn't recognizing most of the area. He'd keep a mental note or two though. "So uh how did you find this new place? " "Remember Lio?" "That one kid with the snaggletooth, a few years back?" "Yeah, I wouldn't mention that to his face though. He got it fixed, looks nice now, but still real defensive about it. Anyways, his dad runs the place." "Oh cool!" "Yeah I found the place a few days before Aiko told us about the shut down, and he offered to let me spar there for free with an extra guest pass too." "Awesome!" said Craig with a wide grin on his face. The wind started picking up more and more. It was sunny but the wind was surprisingly intense for the current weather. "Hey Craig! Have you heard about that one guy from the day before?" Craig managed to keep his reaction a minimum externally but internally he was running in circles.
Nathan did a quick trick around the corner grabbing a lightpost before dashing down the street more and Craig almost missed the turn but made it smoothly enough for Nathan to barely notice. "Uh yeah. Some pretty crazy stuff, Oscuros' is getting way more dangerous." Craig said over the strong winds. Nathan kept going down the street still showing off along the way. "Yeah, do you think the story's true about that lizard looking guy?" Craig smoothly answered the question or at least he thought he smoothly answered it. "I mean my boss thinks so, so hopefully. He said if I get any photos of him he'll pay me more. Heh." Craig said, laughing a bit. "Well if it is true I wanna fight that guy someday." Craig suddenly started to swerve a bit and began to choke on one of his own jet black hairs, before quickly spitting it out and recovering. "Uh why's that?" "If that guy can destroy walls and dodge bullets, that makes him pretty strong and so I wanna beat that guy in a fight. It'd make me look even cooler." Well best buddy you already have. "I suppose so." Nathan stopped in front of a building that had DGN plastered on the front sign. He kicked up his board to his hands and looked back at Craig with a sly smirk as Craig stepped off his bike. "We're here. Now, Craig let's head in and get some work done. "
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4:36pm
The gym inside was spacious and large inside. It was like Aiko's dojo but even bigger and it felt different. A bunch of people were sparring in there but it wasn't just standard martial artists in there fighting. There were even people of different disciplines practicing on a floor above what looked like fencing and kendo. This gym lacked the same feeling that Aiko's dojo had, the same feeling Aiko had that feeling of a second home, it felt more like a place to just fight, nothing more, nothing less.
"So what do ya think Craig? Pretty cool ain't it!" said Nathan with a large smile on his face proud of the place that he found. Craig attempted to mask his anxiety with a grin. "Uh this sure is something! Heh." Craig let out a slight nervous laugh hopefully trying to convince Nathan of this. Nathan wasn't entirely convinced of this but he wasn't gonna press it further, Craig's always been like this. "Right. Here follow me, let's get changed and get started." "Alright."
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Craig and Nathan exited the changing room. Craig in his signature lightning blue colored pads and Nathan with a red only slightly duller than his crimson eyes. Craig looked around again at the display around him as he followed Nathan to one of the rings. He looked at the groups of people sparring there in a mix of admiration and unease. There was something slightly off with this place but what exactly? Nathan approached the ring and found a familiar someone there in fencing gear waiting for him as a cascading wave of annoyance came over him. You gotta be fuckin- "I want my rematch Wang."
Nathan took a deep breath before preparing himself to deal with the younger guy in fencing gear. "Hey there Lance, how are you doing? Still want a rematch that bad after yesterday and the day before that? " Craig heard the name and looked at the taller kid in fencing gear from over Nathan's shoulder. A blonde haired kid with a scowl and a scar under his right eye. "I want my rematch. Or are you just scared, I'll beat your cheating ass?" Lance raised his sabre towards Nathan's chest with rising tension. "I didn't know you did fencing Nathan." Craig said with a hint of confusion. "I don't." Nathan said candidly.. Craig's confusion remained before the realization crept in his head. "So you fought this guy while he was-?" "Yes and I won but unfortunately this guy's a sore loser." "Shut it, Wang. You cheated in that last match. I know it and I want my revenge, so ditch this loser and fight me." Lance growled at him with growing anger.
"Dude, I'm right here." Craig said, offended. I haven't even done anything. Nathan let out a large groan before wrapping his arm around Craig and turning him away. "Be careful with him. His dad is the owner." Nathan whispered. "I thought you said Lio's dad was the owner." whispered Craig."I…misspoke, Lio's dad is more like the manager of the place. This hothead's dad is the other owner, no ones seen him though but apparently he's some super rich guy." Suddenly an idea suddenly sparked in his head and he looked at Craig with a smirk.
Craig had a feeling about what Nathan was thinking about and was hoping he was wrong. Unfortunately for Craig he wasn't. Nathan turned back around with his arm still around Craig's shoulder. "Hey Lance. How about this?" Nathan no. "This is my best friend in the world, Craig Warren. He's almost as good of a fighter as I am!" Lance raised an eyebrow intrigued at what Nathan was trying to do. He eye'd Craig up and down. "Is that so?" Lance said. "Yep! If you can beat him up, I'll give you another shot at a fight." Lance had a large grin show on his face, this could be super fun…for him. "Deal." Craig looked at Nathan with a tinge of annoyance. "Excuse me Lance, can you give us one second?"
Craig said before turning around with Nathan before yelling just under a whisper. "Nathan what the hell?! I don't wanna fight your battle!" Nathan took a deep breath before explaining to Craig. "Look best buddy of mine. Think about it like this, you and I both think this guy is a bit of a tool, right?"
Craig slowly nodded in agreement. "So you can kind of humble this guy especially since he just called you a loser like 2 minutes ago." "Well that is true but I don't know, man." "Craig, I wouldn't make you do this if I thought you'd seriously get hurt. I'm your best friend. I'd never do anything like that, you can easily take this guy." Well you're not wrong about that. I'd probably be more worried about this kid. Craig thought to himself, no matter how badly he'd want to not get involved he could probably use this guy as practice. After all, that's all he really wanted. "Well alright fine." Craig said finally convinced he turned back around to Lance. "One condition if I win. I want a pass to get in here for free." Craig said as he stepped into the ring. Lance laughed a bit before putting his helmet on and stepping into the ring himself. There was no way this kid was gonna beat him, no way in hell. "Sure, whatever you want kid. Now bring it on." The swordsman started bouncing a bit in a place as he waited as Craig put on the rest of his gear before getting in a fighting stance.
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Craig and Lance squared off in the ring measuring their opponent. Lance was trying to figure out how Craig was going to move differently than Nathan, already Craig seemed more passive, a potential sign of less experience in combat. Craig was trying to figure out how Lance was going to approach with his blade, paying attention to his wrist, feet and blade to see how he would move, not trying to waste any movements or energy. As they squared off a few groups of people started looking at their ring and gathering around.
Lance approached with a lunge with his blade that Craig avoided 'narrowly'. Then Lance turned the stab into an upward slash to try to catch him before Craig stepped back but he missed. Craig threw out a kick to Lance's side to capitalize on the opening he had but Lance stepped back out slightly. Lance then went for a jumping slash down on to Craig's head before Craig side stepped and hit him with a side kick to his stomach while he was in the air. Lance stumbled before Craig struck him in the mask with a punch. Craig kept his calm composure as he and Lance kept circling each other. He's not bad, he's probably Nathan's equal, at least he didn't lie about that. Lance thought to himself as he and Craig got back to swapping blows, this time Craig managed to get tagged a handful of times by some stray slashes and stabs. Nathan noticed this and looked on analyzing each strike and slight shift in stance.
It's difficult trying to judge about how much I need to hold back. It's good I cut back on the power a lot otherwise some of those kicks could be bad but trying to manage the speed with this makes this look a bit off. Craig dodged a slash that was going directly for his right cheek, not even a hair was split. Honestly this is almost like fighting in slo mo, I had to catch a few blows just to make this look good. Craig dodged his strikes again and leapt over the sweep Lance made to his feet. No this guy, clearly is the superior between the two but even still I am better. I must be! I AM BETTER! Lance launched out a flurry of attacks that Craig dodged before Craig attempted to counter with a front kick to the chin that Lance avoided narrowly. Like I thought I am better, I am undeniably the best fighter in this place. You lose Warren. Lance thought as he tried to close in the gap going for a slash across Craig's chest to finally bring him down.
Suddenly Craig in a fraction of a second shifted his weight. "You know you'd be a lot better if you could conserve your energy." He came down on Lance's helmeted head with an axe kick sending the blonde haired swordsman crashing down onto the floor of the ring with a thud that echoed through the gym. "I guess I won." Craig said as he extended a hand towards his opponent on the floor. "That was fun, I think…Can I get that free membership now?" Lance looked up at him as a wave of embarrassment flushed over him. How dare this guy look down on him. How dare Nathan use this clearly superior fighter as a scapegoat. This guy even went so far as to embarrass him by giving him fight advice right before beating him. He looked over at the crowd around the ring and looked back at Craig and then Nathan. Lance slapped Craig's hand away and ran out of the ring into the upstairs section of the gym. "...I guess that's a no…"
Craig looked at Lance as he ran off. He won fair and square and that kid was a tool. However, did he really need to even accept the fight in the first place? Craig looked down at his own hands and blanked out for a second. The crowd dispersed from around the ring, all of the fighters and people training there spreading back to what they were doing beforehand. Nathan's arm appeared around Craig's shoulder and raised his arm up with his signature grin. "Good job man, you really laid into him! That axe kick was sick!"
Nathan said giving praise to Craig but Craig didn't seem to respond to it he looked slightly worried. "I dunno, maybe I went overboard..." Craig said. He thought back on his previous encounters, maybe he wasn't tackling these things properly. "I should've gone a little easier on him. I should maybe talk to him."
Nathan sighed pushing his hair back. Craig's always been a bit of a softie. "Look, chillax man. That guy was a jerk, you don't need to worry I'll probably see him back here tomorrow pestering me again. You don't need to worry, it's not your or my job to intrude." Nathan said reassuringly before patting Craig on the back. Craig nodded. Nathan was right, Lance was a bit of an ass who cares how a rich kid reacts to getting humbled just a bit. "Yeah you're right. I'm pretty tired though. I think I'm gonna head home. If you see Lance again please try to get my free pass here." "Sure. I'll see you later man, we'll spar next time." Nathan said before clasping Craig's hand with his creating a large clap heard throughout the gym. The signature sign of their great bond and friendship.
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6:16pm
Craig entered a dark empty warehouse with his bike and parked it inside, pulling out a flashlight from his satchel, flicking it on before eventually finding a switch. The lights flickered, revealing emptied shipping containers and old equipment lying around. Despite the clear time that's gone by since this place was used the equipment seemed to be in decent condition and the containers weren't damaged. The place was perfect for Craig to test out what he could really do. Craig rested his satchel on a drum before pulling out the 5 comics he grabbed earlier from his bed and flicked through them. "Alright now let's see what I can really do."
A few minutes later Craig was attempting to lift up a shipping container with his bare hands, so far he managed to curl it, well above beyond what a normal person could do but Craig still wanted to push it. He felt his arms start to creak under the strain before he dropped the shipping container to the side, understanding that as for now at least he couldn't get it much higher. Craig then looked at the next comic he had and released his claws. There was much more to test here.
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7:57pm
Lance stood in his large bedroom sulking with his sabre right next to him. He looked at it and saw the flashes of his last match. Waves of embarrassment flushing over him like shadows to the night. He looked at his helmet that he threw earlier on the floor. It was damaged from that axe kick, there was a crack along the mesh. He looked to his left to see his trophy case adorned with his many years of his achievements all with his mother there to appreciate it but none with his father. He picked up his glove and threw it at the case in rage remembering his losses, the way that Warren embarrassed him in his father's gym, the way that Nathan Wang had played him not just once now but twice. He stormed out of his room in a rage into his living room.
"I was so stupid I should've forced Wang to fight me. He tricked me by having me fight that Craig kid. And then he had the audacity t-t- to try teaching me after publicly embarrassing me! Ugh I can't believe myself! I want my rematch!"
He looked around with fury in his eyes for something to just take out his anger with, he wanted his revenge more than anything else and soon he looked up and saw the sword plastered at the center of the living room. It had been there for years and he admired it. Lance, since he had seen the sword, had always felt a strange call to it.
It was like it was beckoning for him all this time. It moved him to pick up sword fighting, almost as if the sword itself knighted him, and in the years since he's always pushed that feeling to the back of his mind, but now the call was so strong it could not be ignored. Lance walked up to the middle of the living room to reach out for the blade, and the blade reached back out. Before he even knew it the sword had flown into his hand and the call had stopped, the beckoning urge had ceased and Lance felt rejuvenated, like power seeping into him from the blade itself. Lance took a deep calming breath as he adjusted his grip to the sword. It was a perfect match.
Lance walked over to his room with the sword in hand and grabbed his sabre before tossing it in the air and in an instant, the sabre was cleaved down the middle in two from a single slash. The pieces clanged on the floor of his room. A grin emerged on Lance's face; he couldn't believe it, but now he was down a sabre and sighed because there was no way he could use this sword in that gym. Then responding to his will the sword changed and shifted itself into a black replica of the sabre he cut in twain. A sinister grin emerged on his face as he realized what had happened. "Perfect, with this sword, I will have my revenge."