Chapter 1: New Life, Who Dis?!
(01.01.2005)
(New York – Outskirts, Suburbia)
"Dad! Did you get me a wand like I told you to?!" I yelled as I bounced up and down, wanting desperately to jump from the chair mom made me sit, and tackle all the bright red and green and blue and that one black and very mysterious and very attractive gift box.
My dad, Omni-Man, also known as Nolan, chuckled: "You'll see, but it isn't a wand."
"But why?!" I cried out, heartbroken, almost tearful, feeling as if my whole life had became a terrible example of injustice this world had ever seen.
My mom, also known as Sigrid or meanie, butted in with a scoff: "Because I'll accept no effeminate magic bullshit in my household!"
My lower lip jutted out and trembled: "But mommy…"
She immediately scooped me up and nuzzled my hair, but also said a quiet yet final 'no'…
So the meal happened. Dad took a few photos, mom scolded him for being a terrible photographer, she took a few photos, then took about a hundred more, we actually had to replace the candles two times for the perfect photos, but in the end it was over, and we ate the cake, it was delicious, but then it was time for the Presents!
I hurried to the couch while mom placed the boxes one by one in front of me, but did not touch the black box.
"Mommy is that present for one of you?" I looked between my parents.
Dad frowned, looked towards the tree and me, and asked: "Which present Markus?"
"There, the black one under the tree." I pointed.
*Whoosh*
Dad blurred around the tree before stopping in air while holding the tree up with one hand: "Where is the present Mark?" Dad asked with an intense look while mom hugged me closer to her chest.
"Right there." I pointed again, and dad landed before hovering a hand over the present, "Yeah, it is right below your hand."
Dad frowned, raised a fist, and brought it down… Only to freeze the moment his fist would've touched the present…
"Nolan." Mom called out.
Dad looked up to us, frowned, then smiled tightly: "It is a present I can't touch dear, maybe a powerful fan gave it?" He shrugged, the tension on his shoulder easing, "Yeah, why don't you open that one first, kiddo."
I did not need to be a genius to know there was an unheard dialogue between my parents over that decision, but mom put me down and, I really was curious about the present in that box. Walking over, mom and dad hovered right behind me, literally in dad's case.
It really was inviting, I don't know why but I felt like opening it was the most important thing in the world, but, like, not something I actually had to. If I needed to go to the bathroom then I would go instead of opening it now, but I don't, and I really do want to open it, so I did.
The bow was easy to pull apart, then I removed the top cover and… It is a small bottle. More like a potion vial. Inside of it was a black liquid.
Just by looking at it I knew instantly that is was the most precious thing in existence. I grabbed the bottle and began chugging it. I didn't know how I could drink it when I did not open the lid, but I did. It tasted like nothing. No, not like nothing. Kind of like darkness, but not quite.
I didn't know darkness even had a taste!
And suddenly shivered.
I felt naked, like I was being watched all around by unwanted gazes.
Looking up at my parents, they seemed oddly stiff, and did not move. I twitched, rolled my shoulders. It did not 'itch', but the sensation was similar.
And then it eased as my shadow rose from the ground and covered my body. It did not fully disappear, but it eased. And my parents suddenly could move again.
"Are you alright?!" Mom yelled, while dad grabbed us and blurred away.
When we landed I shook out of mom's grip and shifted my shadow cloak so that they could see my face: "I am okay. It gave me a power." I replied while making my shadow flow around my form to eventually settle on a cloak.
Just because I said I was fine did not mean I really was fine, as my parents proved their distrust to my words by taking me to the Justice League HQ where I got scanned by science, diagnosed by doctors, and looked over by magicians that mom was still disdainful towards.
Don't get me wrong, it was awesome to spend time with heroes, and talk to them, but they were all too busy focusing on how my cloak worked and their probing was like an itch.
In the end they found out that my cloak adapted to hide me from detection, it might have something more but they couldn't discover without harming due to how closely the cloak had bonded to me, and the innate property of the cloak being hiding…
(1 Month Later)
"Markus! Come on out! We are ready to leave!" Mom yelled out, bringing me out of my meditation.
Well, I call it meditation, and it looks like meditation due to my sitting position, but in reality it is just focusing hard on hiding while 'lowering my presence'. I gained that ability after drinking the potion, and the more I do it the less I feel seen.
It doesn't affect the people around me, I think it has to do with people with great sensory abilities, the more I use it the less they detect me passively, so the less I feel seen in turn.
The ability to feel others' detection also had the side effect of making me desire the shadows, solitude, and avoiding crowds. It isn't that they hurt or really 'itch', when I first drank the potion the sensation was far more intense due to being new, but the less I am seen the more secure I feel. Because I don't know who is watching me, but they are watching me, and it bothers me that they can do that when I can't.
"Markus!"
Shaking my head I dropped my meditation and walked back inside. We would be camping on Mount Everest for a month, it is still winter so it is the time when there are least amount of people climbing it.
(1 Month Later)
We spent a whole month after my begging, running away from father, and diving into the snow.
They don't work, dad gets calls sometimes and flies off to solve people's problems, but he can do it from here. I really like it here. There are far, FAR less gazes on me here. Also the cold and clean air is great. I never want to leave really.
Mom says it is the Asgardian in me that loves the cold, but I think she is quite done with this camping trip. There is only so much sex they can have, even if I have my own tent far away from theirs.
"Markus! Come on out! We are going home!" Dad yelled out to the snow.
I kept quiet and waited until he was closer before jumping at him while dislodging the snow from my white cloak and yelling: "Gorilla warfare!"
As expected dad caught me before I could tackle him, and laughed: "It is 'guerrilla', it comes from the word 'war' which means 'war'."
I frowned and pointed at him: "If I yelled gorilla then I meant gorilla! And stop trying to teach me words already, you know I can't hear them!" I struggled to wrap around the hand he was holding me by to bite him, but he just shook me until I stopped.
"You can if you try, don't overly rely on your gifts and forget to train your brain, Markus." He scolded me gently as I pouted.
"Can you let me go now?" I wobbled my lower lip while raising my limbs to look like a puppy or kitten being held by their neck.
*Snort*
"And allow you to disappear again? Nope, you'll stay as my carry on bag until we are home from here."
And despite my assurances that I wouldn't escape, he did not listen and kept carrying me under one arm while helping mother with disassembling the tent.
Maybe I shouldn't have lied, false swore, and been a general menace to extend our stay on Mount Everest… Nah! I got capital punishment by mother whenever I do so it should all be balanced.
'Perfectly balanced, just as all should be.' A voice whispered in my mind, it felt like a line I heard on TV but I didn't remember which show it was.
Shaking my head I hopped to the ground as dad landed us on a village, where mom made a beeline towards a shop and bought a bunch of things.
She liked the camping trip, especially liked cooking with these non-American ingredients that dad brought from all over the world, so we are now gathering a few things for a delicious meal later on… Which would be a fine excuse if we hadn't been doing this for a day straight!
I get the cheese, it is smelly and moldy but it can go well with some pasta maybe. I get the chocolate, it is chocolate, and chocolate is always good. And honey too, it is honey, while not as good as chocolate it is still good, even if the one they bought was weirdly spicy and made my head feel weird after tasting it.
The cookies were also good, we were tired and hungry after buying so much, dad doubly so since he was flying back to home to drop things off before flying back in seconds, but did we get so much alcohol?
Three different vineyards in vastly different places. Five barrels of beer. Another ten barrels of mead, which is alcohol made from honey. Plus pickles and, even worse, so much fish, ugh.
In short it got real boring really fast.
I begged dad to drop me off, but they said this was punishment for being a brat at the camp. So I hung limply on father's chest as he flew, playing with my cloak, and looking around. Mom was on his back and on her back was a backpack holding the smaller things she was gathering or buying from around the world. She really got into cooking during the camping trip for some reason.
While looking around I noticed a flash from the corner of my eye-
"Dad! Stop!" He did and I frowned at the shimmering air on the snowy mountain we were near.
"What is it?" He asked and I pointed to the barrier.
"There is something there. Wait a moment."
I could see it but he couldn't, neither could mom, and the only thing that differentiated us is the cloak. I pulled it on and focused, and the moment I did a martial artist temple was revealed.
"Woah." I muttered as I saw a large golden dragon going on a rampage in the temple, there were people in red and people in purple all trying to fighting, most were getting crushed.
"What is it Markus? What do you see?" Mom asked impatiently.
I told them what was going on and while telling it I had an idea. What if I could share the cloak?
"Let me try something." I said and focused on manipulating the cloak to cover their faces, like a domino mask.
"I can see it now." Dad said, gaze sharp and on the fight, mom made an agreeing sound, she could see it too.
…
"Aren't you going to help them dad?" I asked him, puzzled why we were just hovering above the fight, doing nothing.
*Sigh*
"It isn't that simple. There are at least two factions, the purple robed ones and the red robed ones, we don't know who is in the right here and going in half cocked might do more damage than it would solve."
*Snort*
"Just go smash the overgrown lizard and let them fight it out. It looks very tasty." Mom commented, and I did not need to be a telepath to know that she was drooling at the idea of eating the dragon.
*Growl*
Dad lifted me to look me in the eyes with a disbelieving expression on his face: "Really Markus?" He asked.
"I am hungry." I muttered, face flushed with embarrassment.
"Hi hungry, I am mom."
…
…
…
"Ugh!" I shuddered in pain from the 'joke'.
"Seriously Sig?" Dad asked in disbelief, eyebrow rising again.
"Screw you guys! I am funny when I want to be!" She screeched, cheeks red and angry.
"Ah, so you didn't want to be funny just then." Dad countered calmly and all cool-like.
Things devolved a bit, however the battle on the ground below did not improve, the dragon actually grew in size as it ate the martial artists and began to glow.
*Sigh*
"I guess I need to get involved. Hmm… Do you think you can lend me your cloak? Make it cover my form and hide my identity?" Dad asked me.
Though hesitant, I nodded. I had a feeling that I could and when I tried, it worked. However it left me feeling exposed and naked towards all the gazes, I shifted uneasily, which dad caught but did not comment on. He landed us on a mountain nearby, even my enhanced eyes could barely pick the dragon apart from the mountain dojo but I did see a black blur shot through the dragon's chest and fly towards us holding what seemed to be its still beating heart.
I stared at the heart…
"It looks tasty." Mom whispered from dad's shoulder, and I nodded instinctively.
A part of me did not want to let it out of my sight. I really wanted to eat it.
Dad snapped his fingers in front of our faces and told me to cover the heart. I did and the hypnotic hungry diminished.
"Sigrid, what is going on? Why are both of you so obsessed with eating this thing?" Dad asked, concerned.
"It is a dragon." Mom said as if it was obvious, which, it totally was.
"Elaborate. Please." Dad begged, looking between both of us as if we were the crazy ones for not wanting to eat the dragon's heart.
We shared a look, trying to put it to words…
"It is a dragon." I eventually said.
"It is strong, a dragon. It has to be tasty."
*Sigh*
"Sig, I killed it without effort. It isn't strong." Dad argued, only for mom to blush beet red.
"I know. You killed it for me, for our family." She said between pants.
"… You know what? I accept this." He said before grabbing me with one arm and holding the beating dragon's heart in the other, mom jumped his back and nuzzled his cheek while humming giddily.
"You are the best Nolan." She screamed as we flew faster in the air, across the ocean.
"IF you two idiots get something from this I will be taking you both to the League to do all the tests they have at hand." He muttered loud enough for us to hear.
Later on, after we returned home we realized that the heart was actively regenerating and mom had the awesome idea of keeping it as an infinite source of dragon meat. We already had a basement, dad simply called some of his friends, the magicians whom mom was very snobby towards, but they were nice enough to ward the basement for privacy and detection.
The moment they did that I breathed a sigh of relief. The cloak covering the dragon heart returned to me and I grinned widely.
The basement suddenly became my favorite place, even more than Mount Everest. One of the magicians was even kind enough to give me a bouncing ball that returned to the thrower's hand after throwing. The homing function wasn't the best so you had to aim it just right so the ball would bounce back towards you or the homing wouldn't work.
It was more a magnetic attraction that only activated upon the return bounce than anything more complex. I am not a mage, nor did I know anything about magic, but even I could see the simplicity of the enchantment. Still, I really treasured it.
The day only got better when mom finished cooking the pieces of dragon heart and we both began to eat it…
"WHY ARE YOU CRYING?!" Dad screamed in confusion and concern.
In response we both speared a bit of dragon meat and extended our hands to him: "Take a bite!/Eat it!"
He recoiled, but seeing our resolute expression he hesitantly took mom's fork and began chewing: "… Huh… It is good."
Mom looked at him in horror, I did too but my swollen cheeks probably failed to express it: "How can you say that?! It is dragon meat!"
Dad looked between us, paused, then shrugged: "Could use some more salt."
I shifted away from him, and made a note to never share my dragon meat with a Viltrumite. Their tastebuds were full of alien stupidity.
(3 Months Later)
My cloak… It is similar to shadows. The way it behaves is sometimes like a fluid that flows according to my will, and sometimes it is like light, appearing where I focus on before I can blink.
What it isn't is solid material.
Regardless of my repeated attempts I could not get it to move the water in a bowl, couldn't lift a feather, nor could I block the wind hitting me. I tried everything, from bringing more of my shadow to compressing it to adding emotions to the mix to, when feeling particularly lost, praying. It did not work. At all.
Which is made understand that, that just isn't how the cloak is meant to be used. Because the cloak learns. And it learns fast.
Becoming white to hide in the snow? A few dozen minutes' concentration.
Splitting to cover something else? Nearly instantly.
Becoming a clothes that look real? That took some time, but each attempt gave me some sort of improvement. Something I could use to measure my progress.
Right now I can do a lot of things.
Giant black crow wings? Easily done, just don't try to glide or you'll fall like a hammer.
A bunch of sharp floating swords? Yep, that is doable too, it won't cut anything but it looks intimidating.
Forming a clone of myself made out of the cloak? I did that too, though I need to improve it a lot more still. Also it cannot make any sound.
So… The shadows are mine, but they are useless in direct combat.
They are tricks. They are illusions. They are…
Magic…
Let me state one thing clear. I love magic. I don't know why, but I love magic, you just wave your fingers and bam! Things happen!
I love animating brooms to brush, and I love throwing random ingredients into a cauldron to make potions.
Not that I can do any of those things, but I love the idea of them.
But sadly my mother most certainly does NOT.
She detests magic.
She looks down on magicians.
She scolds me whenever I show any interest in it.
Even makes sexist comments about 'magic is a woman's job, and no son of mine will be a gaylittlemagician'…
So it should come as no surprise that she disliked my power. Called it unnatural, useless, and scolded me whenever I focused too deeply on it.
It is only thanks to father that I could keep using it. Train it. Talk about it during dinner with him…
While mother looked at our talk with a scowl on her face.
So when she found me playing with my bouncing ball in the basement one day while getting the day's dragon meat, she noticed its enchantment and flew into a rage.
I don't remember what was said. I felt afraid, she was covered in blood, waving the knife around, and screaming profanities towards the magicians that came to enchant our basement. Then she stomped to the backyard, with me begging her to not throw away my toy, well, she threw it.
And it flew far. That Asgardian strength allowed her to throw it farther than I had ever thought possible.
But what was its magic?
It returned to the thrower after a few bounces. And it happened. Mom left the backyard, leaving me sobbing for my toy, when… It bounced back.
I grabbed it before it could bounce away and hugged it to my chest.
And I found out how to become invisible through my desperate desire to keep my toy safe.
From that point on, I kept my distance. From mother.
I grabbed my food and sat away from her. I washed my own clothes. Somehow my cloak adapted to dampen the sound of the shower when I was washing.
She did not apologize. I did not expect her to.
Dad was stuck between us. Tried to mediate, but it did not work.
Mom did not want me. The magician son of Omni-Man was no son of Sigrid. So I considered her no mother mine.
It felt freeing really.
To refuse the oppression, trying to fit into a mold I wasn't suited for.
No. I am not sad that my mother hates me. Nor is my heart clenching each time I see another kid with their mother when going outside.
(2 Months Later)
"What do you mean you won't go to Asgard?!" Sigurd hissed, face red with rage.
"I am no musclebound fool, and you can't force me into becoming one." I scowled back.
She took a breath: "You will go to Asgard. You will learn some sense here. You will not return until you do so." She commanded while leaning down on the table.
I rose from the chair I was sitting: "I am a magician. I will NOT go to Asgard. And youcannot force me." I hissed back forcefully.
Then pain exploded in my stomach as I held my stomach. My mind reeled, trying to fathom what just happened. Then I saw her. Standing above me.
"Will you listen or do you need me to beat you to death?!" She screamed, spittle flying and eyes wild.
And something in me, something that was already cracked, splintered into pieces.
I pulled my cloak, invisibility covered my form-
I was in the living room. The world was spinning. She was yelling.
"-no you will face me like a man! Escape and escape, do you know nothing-" And on and on it went.
My hands rose to my chest and I got up. I stared at her. My ears were ringing.
She finally stopped, she was panting, teeth bared. Like an animal.
"This cannot be my mom." The words came out of my chest in a whisper.
She was yelling again. She slapped me, before yelling, that's why the world was spinning again.
'That thing in my chest… It is my connection to this foul being…' I realized and felt a wave of nausea, whether from the repeated hits, concussion, or the fact that I have any sort of relation to this monster-
My cloak, my cover from all that threatens me, my safety and security- my emotions poured into it. And it in turn bled into the connection.
She paused: "What are you doing? Stop that. Stop that right this instant!" She yelled, something in her tone but it was too late.
The cloak could always cover me from the world, but now it learned how to do the reverse. It is covering me from my connection to this woman. And just like that the cracks were gone.
The physical damage was still there but the emotional. The emotions that were wrecking me far more than her slaps, kick, or slams? They were gone.
In their place was the anger. Now unshackled. Now questioning.
'Why did I get hurt?'
And finding no answer.
Instead of that one, two other questions were answered.
'Who hurt me?'
'Who should I hurt to not be hurt anymore?'
And the answer to both those questions was starting at him in horror, before she got kicked in the belly just like she had done to him. When she was down, covering herself, he turned to the window and jumped out getting up he gave one last look at her, still holding her stomach and laying there before walking away.
'I don't need this. Father will side with the bitch. Have to hide first.' Acting on instinct he ran away from home at age 5.
Armed with an Asgardian body, an illusion ability, and allspeak, he set out towards the unknown.
Leaving behind a broken home, a broken mother, and a damaged unborn sister.