Marvel: The Social Link System

Duncan attempted to stand up from the ground, grabbing a nearby shelf for assistance, and a few food items fell to the ground as a result. The youngster was writhing in anguish, his breathing was uneven, and his pupils dilated at random.

[Very well, let us forge an eternal contract.]

The frightening voice reverberated one last time in Duncan's thoughts, and his face became itchy all of a sudden. The pain in his brain had multiplied by a hundred, and he had gripped the shelf so tightly that the wood cracked, blood spilled from his nose, and tears couldn't stop streaming.

[I am thou, thou art I…]

Duncan's veins bulged as his face flushed, but he stood firm.

[Thou who has died once and has been granted the forbidden knowledge, thou who is always ever observant, call upon my name, and I will give thee the hollow piece of thy soul!]

Duncan had gripped the shelf so fiercely that it had been broken. Splinters cut deep into his palm, and blood covered the whole surface of his hand. The youngster tried not to scream to delay the masked guys who didn't know where he was yet, but he was about to collapse.

[Give in to thy inner self; break thy chains of restriction; and I will promise thee that the Unseen will descend to thy reality once again!]

Then there was stillness. Duncan could no longer hear the footsteps, and the anguish had vanished. When he turned around, he saw that the masked men were standing near the pantry door, aiming their guns at him.

The masked man was perplexed by Duncan's look, which was understandable. Duncan's face was now covered in a mask; it was a plain white mask with black eyes and sewn-tight lips. His bright yellow eyes peered through the mask, staring at the masked men.

Duncan then took a long breath.

"Come," he said quietly. "Kalyptos."

His bleeding palm then rubbed against the mask, staining it red. His fingers sank into the mask, and he wrenched it from his face in one rapid action. When the mask was pulled off, blood flowed from his skin, as if it had ripped his own skin apart.

Duncan, on the other hand, wore a deathly grin.

In an instant, his blood evaporated, dissolving into a dazzling, blue flame that illuminated the semi-dark pantry. The masked men were alarmed and began to open fire.

The bullet penetrated the air and headed towards Duncan, but as it approached him, it vanished, as if disintegrated by the blue fire that is continually spreading around Duncan's body.

Duncan was gradually covered in blue fire, shielding him from the gunshots fired by the masked men. The fire then shimmers before soaring up and floating in the air behind Duncan.

Duncan has changed his attire. He was now dressed in a black monk robe, with a hood over his head, and the masked men could hardly see his face, as if a shadow had obscured it.

The blue fire then grew in size, sending a powerful shockwave that pushed the masked guys to the ground.

When the masked men regained their composure after the stagger, they witnessed something they will remember for the rest of their lives.

An angel loomed behind the boy in front of them. Six black wings guarded the boy and his mother; the angel wore a black robe with a cowl over his face; his lips was stitched shut; his complexion was ghostly white; and he held a red and black book that had an ominous aura.

"What the hell..." one of the masked men murmured to himself, appearing to take a step back from his prior posture.

Duncan stood motionless in front of the masked men. He raised his hand, as if directing the angel behind him, and gazed at them.

The angel then opened his book, and the pages fluttered wildly until coming to a halt on a particular one. When the angel raised his hand, six violet ethereal objects resembling spheres materialized behind him.

"Shoot him!" yelled the commander of the masked men, and the others followed suit. Gunshots boomed out across the pantry, but the angel's wings shielded the boy and his mother from harm.

Even though they realized it was pointless, the gunfire continued for a time. They kept pressing the trigger on their rifle, hoping that the angel would make a mistake and kill the boy.

But no such thing happened.

Instead, the ethereal violet spheres moved in a flash, piercing the air quicker than the speed of sound. The violet orbs twisted over the space, as if looking for a target, and when they found one, the violet spheres passed through the masked man's head, spilling the brain to the outside.

As the spell hunted every single man inside the hotel, a sequence of screams and shouts resonated throughout the building. It showed no pity; even when the masked men begged, the spell still took their lives.

Within a few minutes, the entire structure was lit with dim violet lights, and when the lights went out, only the corpses of the masked men could be seen in the halls of the hotel's first floor.

Only Duncan could be seen standing firm in the pantry. He approached one of the masked men's bodies and found that one of them was barely alive. He knelt in front of the still-alive man and asked him.

"Why?" Duncan inquired.

The angel behind him flipped through his book again, stopping at a different page. When the angel opened his palm, a small white sphere appeared on top. The sphere then made its way to the man's head and into his brain.

The man opened his mouth as soon as the white light was no longer visible. "Wilson... Fisk... his goal... The only crime lord… monopoly…"

The man died in an instant because he could no longer sustain the unknown force that confined his mind. The life in his eyes had disappeared, never to be seen again.

Duncan sighed at the sight; his thoughts about death had gone numb since those men pulled the triggers, and he felt no remorse at all.

He could soon hear the police sirens from outside. Duncan looked around and noticed that everything was in disarray. There was blood all over the place, but he had no injuries or dirt on him. Duncan's regular look was restored when the angel and his suit vanished as blue fire incinerated them.

Duncan took the newly deceased man's hand and aimed the gun still attached to it at his arm before pulling the trigger with the man's finger.

Duncan wrenched in anguish as the sound of a gunshot rang around the pantry one last time. He then came up to his mother and sat beside her, his suit finally stained with blood.

A police unit in full armor entered the pantry less than a minute later. They became suspicious when they noticed the chaos around the room, but when they discovered a teenager still alive, sitting in the corner of the room, and a passed out woman near him, they hurried. They moved through the assault team's bodies and kneeled in front of Duncan.

"Kid, are you okay?" one of the officers inquired.

"I'm Alright..." Duncan stumbled. "My mum…"

"Don't worry, kid; there are medics outside, and your mother will be OK." The man then examined Duncan; he was covered in his own blood, and his arm had been shot. "Can you walk?"

Duncan just nodded as the man assisted him in standing. The other squad assisted in carrying his mother outside of the hotel premises.

—

Duncan was now sitting on the edge of an ambulance's door. Inside the ambulance was his mother, who had just been in an emergency surgery to pull the bullet in her thigh. She was now recovering and was about to be transported to a hospital for further care.

Duncan had also had his bullet from his arm removed, and his arm was now wrapped in bandages. Duncan could observe that the rest of the hotel guests had come down to the first floor, he could see a lot of shocked faces, as they were probably not prepared to see so many corpses on the floor.

Duncan was now face to face with a police officer who had a notebook open in front of him. The officer appeared fatigued, and he wore a nameplate that read "Stacy" on his chest.

"Hey, kid. you doing okay ? "The officer inquired.

"I'm fine, officer," he replied.

The cop let out a sigh. "My name is George Stacy, and while normally I would ask your parents first, the situation doesn't allow for that, so do you mind?"

"Not at all, Officer Stacy." Duncan gave a feeble smile. "Ask away."

The officer nodded and clicked his pen, indicating that he was ready to take notes. "Were you here for Marco Nefaria's wedding?"

"Yes."

"What's your mother's relationship with the Nefaria family?"

"Marco and my mum are friends; that's all I know," Duncan admitted partially.

"Okay…" Officer Stacy made a hum. "It appears to be a dead end there. Let's just get right to the point. What did you see in there, kid? You and your mother were the sole survivors among all the guests. I'm not suggesting you're a suspect, but we can't afford to leave any stone unturned."

"Can't you look through the surveillance camera?" Duncan probed.

Officer Stacy gave a shake of his head. "They were switched off one hour before the massacre."

"Oh," Duncan answered calmly. He then stared down at the ground, as if deep in contemplation. "I saw… a man dressed in robes..."

"A man dressed in robes?" Captain Stacy was confused.

"He had these... strange abilities." Duncan went on. "He had an angel behind him; I think he was some kind of sorcerer."

"Are you sure, kid?" Officer Stacy's brow furrowed. "That kind of stuff is difficult to believe."

"To be honest, officer, I also find that difficult to believe." Duncan responded. "But we live in a world where the Norse gods exist and aliens appear out of nowhere, so..."

"Yeah…" Captain Stacy let out a sigh. "Then continue."

"Um, before all that, we were running through the kitchen as my mother was wounded in the leg, we were quickly cornered, I killed one of them with a knife out of desperation, and—"

"You killed one?" Captain Stacy inquired once more.

Duncan gave a nod. "I stabbed him with a knife; he was after me, so I hid behind a door and carried out the deed."

"Okay…" Officer Stacy stated that he appeared to feel sorry for Duncan. "And then when you're surrounded, the man in robes appears?"

Duncan gave a nod. "He says nothing; the angel just appeared behind him and recited a spell; some light spheres appeared and killed them all."

Captain Stacy inhaled deeply. "Could you go into more detail? Wait a second, I'll call a sketcher."

Officer Stacy stepped away from Duncan for a few seconds before returning with another man. Duncan then proceeded to describe in detail the "man" he "saw" in the pantry to the sketcher, and the sketcher was able to do a fairly accurate drawing of, well, Duncan.

"Is this it?" Captain Stacy wondered.

"Yes, officer. That looks quite accurate," answered Duncan.

"Okay." Captain Stacy rose and patted the sketcher on the shoulder. He then muttered a few words to him before leaving, most likely to report the findings.

"Is there anything else you could tell me?" officer Stacy inquired.

"Well, after that, he vanished, and the cops arrived," Duncan explained.

George simply nodded. "Okay, thank you for your cooperation, kid. You went to Midtown High, right? I'll drop by your school tomorrow to notify you of your absence, so you won't have to go."

"Thank you very much, officer." Duncan gave a nod. "Are you Gwen's father? She's my biology lab partner. "

Officer Stacy cocked his brow. "Yeah… Well, I guess I'll inform her she'll be in biology class by herself tomorrow."

"Thanks." Duncan gave a feeble smile.

Then the world came to a halt once more.  Duncan's surroundings had darkened, and blue butterflies that radiated a faint glow appeared.

With a slight headache, Duncan could hear a feminine voice ringing in his mind.

[I am Thou, Thou Art I…]

[...Thou hast acquired a new vow…]

[...It shall become the wings of rebellion that breaketh thy chains of captivity…]

[...With the birth of the Justice Arcana, I have obtained the winds of blessing that shall guide thee to freedom and new power…]

When the voice finished, the environment returned to normal, and Duncan noticed officer Stacy walking away from him, towards his colleagues.

Duncan could only smile broadly as the officer left.

—

George Stacy had just returned home from a long day at work. He opened the entrance to his house and walked into the living room. He noticed his daughter, whom he adores, sitting on the couch, seemingly watching TV with a few snacks in her arms.

"You were there?" Gwen, his daughter, questioned, pointing at the television. The television was showing footage of the scene outside the hotel where he was staying, and it was not a good picture, with people looking shocked and terrified.

"Yeah, it was a mess." George sighed as he walked to the kitchen to fetch a glass of water. "Shouldn't you be in bed? It's school night."

"I was worried," she said. "Mom's already asleep, though."

"Well, she trusts me to do a good job." George let out a snort. He then thought of the kid he met earlier and how he was forced to kill someone out of desperation.  "I met a kid in your school in that incident. He's quite a brave one. "

"What?" Gwen appeared astonished. "Do you know what his name is?"

"He said he's your lab partner. Duncan I think. "George responded. "He and his mother were the only survivors of the guest."

"Duncan?" Gwen appeared more surprised. "Is he all right?"

"He'll be alright; he just got shot in the arm," George replied, making Gwen gasp slightly. "What I'm worried about is his mental state; out of desperation, he was forced to kill one of the attackers. He's a good kid, his testimony matches with the rest of the guests that aren't in the scene, and he gives us some useful information."

"Oh," Gwen responded simply.

George made a hum. "Yeah, you'll be alone in biology class tomorrow for obvious reasons. It's almost midnight; go to bed now."

Gwen let out a sigh. "Sure, dad..."