Adamant Blood

Mark watched as Ben hopped off of the hovervan's ledge and rushed his wife and daughter, who cried as they hugged him. Mark loved to see it.

Mark hopped off of the transport, too, to stand there and wait.

Lola stepped down beside him to quietly ask, "Have you considered your medical license?"

Mark chuckled. "I thought Badaira was the one who wanted me to become a Grand Healer. But you, too?"

"You can do lots, Mark. A whole lot."

"I got magic learning with Isoko and Inquisitor stuff with you, and also… There's a lot," Mark said, "No time for proper medical learning, too, and besides, once I learn enough with Union and magic, I'm pretty sure I can hit 90% of all injuries."

"Higher than that, I am sure," Lola softly said, ending it there, because she could see what Mark could see happening. She stood straight.

Mark stood straight, too.

And Ben and his family walked over, with Ben holding on to his wife's hand, as he smiled, saying, "Thank you, Mark. It's been an honor."

Mark smiled. "You're the big superhero, Titanfist. I'm glad I could help you. And here's a bit more help." Mark floated a sword of pure adamantium off of his back, to hand to Ben. It was a completely normal-shaped sword at about a meter long, with a normal grip. Ben's eyes went wide. Mark floated it to him, and said, "If you want to get it reforged, you can. I need to learn better forging techniques, so this is just, you know, a full adamantium sword. I figure that it doesn't need to be actual-kaiju-blade sized because you can change that, right?"

Ben stared at the sword for several moments. An outsider might wonder if he was going to reject the gift, but Mark could tell he was trying to decide how to accept it without it looking like it was a dream coming true. All the other brawnies were going to be so jealous…

Which reminded Mark that he needed to make one of these for Kandon Valen, too; for the main brawny defender at the settlement.

Ben's wife nudged Ben's side and Ben reached out and took the handle of the blade.

Mark grinned as he let go.

Ben held the sword, and was kinda reverent. And then he looked to Mark, and said, "Thank you."

Mark nodded, saying, "See you around, Punchman~"

Ben grinned. "Later, Blackvein."

Mark got back into the hovervan, with Lola right behind him, and Isoko at the controls. Soon, they were soaring back through the sky—

Isoko called out, "Merchandising meeting!"

Lola said, "Today was a great healing day. You both did very well. Now, if you could please drop me back off at Blackthorn's and you two can go do the Hero/Villain Program things on your own, I would be thankful."

And that is what they did.

After they dropped off Lola, it was just Mark and Isoko riding in the spiderbot alone, toward the Hero's Association to talk with merchandisers that neither of them had ever met before. Eliot and Sally had taken out a different vehicle and headed off elsewhere, sending a text that they would be back by nightfall.

It was the first time Mark and Isoko had been alone in a while.

Mark asked, "Do you want an adamantium sword now? Because I have extra metal."

Isoko went, "Oh my gods, Mark. I cannot believe you gave a sword to Titanfist."

Mark defended himself, "He can use it! And well, too!"

"I totally agree. I hope he can even keep it, too. But what you did was basically: 'Here, have this pile of nukes in case of emergency'."

Mark rolled his eyes, even as he grinned. "When I broke Lola out of her house arrest and Sentinels Saikou and Walter showed up, Lola said that me wearing my scales to that confrontation was 'bringing a nuke to a conversation'."

"And she was totally right." Isoko grinned and looked at him. "So you're gonna go with a full-scale figurine, right?"

Mark nodded. "With detachable scales to show off my abs, too! Sex sells~"

"Gotta show off those boobs!"

Mark scoffed. "They're called 'pecs', Isoko."

Isoko laughed. "You should try a Union of Gains/Weakness to get more swole~"

Mark smiled as he went with the idea, saying, "Gotta balance that with a Union of Limberness and Stiffness, though, so I don't get so big I can't scratch my own back."

They joked about fun stuff, all the way to the merchandising meeting at the Hero's Association.

When they got closer, Quark notified them that, "The Association has seen your flight plan for the back lots and they're asking if you would like to make a change. Would you make an appearance landing at the front entrance?"

Isoko instantly and enthusiastically said, "FUCK YES WE CAN DO THAT!"

Mark matched Isoko's energy as she parked the spiderbot right on top of the fountain in the middle of the front circle of the Hero's Association, right in front of a crowd of people walking from the parking lots, and one lonely tour bus stopped at the front stairs. Mark played it off as a bit of 'throwing their weight around' and a bit 'everything is back to normal'.

Isoko hopped out first, all smiles and platinum, before the slightly confused and worried crowd. And then Isoko announced to them all, "Even villains gotta do taxes!"

Before the crowd could figure out what that meant, Mark floated down on a tri-toroid of adamantium, wind whipping around him, and then he landed and walked forward silently, 'playing his part'.

Isoko was having a ton of fun, and Mark was glad to let her have her fun, as she was all theatrics and drama, as they met some guys out front who 'just wanted to talk in private for a moment'. They were the merchandising team pretending to be something a lot more forceful. They were led by one brightly-red-haired man named Reddron. He was one of the many lead marketing associates for the Hero/Villain Program, and they were all playing up the drama, right alongside Isoko.

It made a whole lot of people a whole lot less nervous to see villains being villains and heroes being heroes, which was good.

Soon, Mark and Isoko and the marketing team were beyond the public, sitting in a nice big meeting room with holograms on the walls and floating above the table.

Reddron sat down with them, papers spread out on the table with a whole list of things to go over, from primary marketing, to secondary and likewise—

A familiar face walked into the room.

Noel Oliphant announced, "Hey, you two! Time for merchandising, huh?"

Reddron was instantly on edge.

Isoko was a little surprised by Reddron and Noel as she stood up, saying, "I thought you were busy?"

"Hey, Noel," Mark said, ignoring Reddron a little. "Weren't you handing us off to Marketer Reddron here?"

Reddron stood up and glared at Noel. "Noel."

Noel grinned at Reddron and said, "I am so busy, Isoko, but I'm the liaison for the settlement, and I'm still here to at least hand you off to Reddron. He's a good friend of mine. He'll do you well."

Reddron had a weird little 'that's not right' tension to his vector, but he said, "Of course. Noel and I go way back… Will you be staying for any part of it, Noel?"

Noel looked right at Reddron. "Not necessary." He said to Isoko and Mark, "If you want to do some smaller scenes, we can shoot them when you're done. I have some ideas to flesh out some background stories in Episode 4."

Isoko was thrilled. "Yes! Absolutely."

Mark decided to go with it, saying, "Sure."

And then Noel nodded and left.

And then Mark and Isoko were back with Reddron and the marketing team.

Reddron ignored everything about what had just happened with Noel and smiled as he began talking shop about what it meant to have a brand, to be noticed, and to make money off of that.

Mark felt like he was falling down a deep rabbit hole.

"But mainly, when it comes to all of this," Reddron said, "Your individual power does not matter. I can make anyone with a good start, a real draw, into a true superhero on the screen, long before they even get to the screen, and both of you have that good start. The main hurdle here is how much work you're willing to do to grab that fame, to reach for and claim it all for yourself. That said…" Reddron spoke seriously as he asked, "Both of you are in the spotlight track; the main event. The big story. There's also the daily spotlight track, which means movies, screen shows, appearances, and otherwise. Either of you two think you want to become daily players?"

"No," Mark said, "Not me. I got a lot of shit to do aside from this."

Isoko was torn. "… Yes…. But also no. I can't." Isoko solidified her wants, for now, and said, "I can't."

Reddrun focused on Isoko. "If you don't want to be a movie super now, then that's okay, but in the future, maybe you want to? Have you ever thought about acting classes and community theater and things of that nature? You can't become a movie super without actually being able to act."

Isoko breathed deep, then said, "I have considered all of that… but just the normal spotlight track, for now."

Reddrun nodded. "Let's talk 'image', then. What do you see when you look in the mirror? What do you want to project out into the world?"

Isoko said, "Ruthless fun."

Reddrun nodded, saying, "A good one," as he put a finger down to the side, where an intern or someone like that was writing on a pad. The guy wrote something down and circled it a few times. Reddrun continued, "Mark?"

Mark kinda grinned at Isoko's fast, honest reply, and then went, "Uh," as Reddrun focused on him. Mark took a moment, then felt solid as he answered, "Impervious power and control."

Reddrun nodded at that, too, as the intern wrote that down. Reddrun asked, "Any catch phrases?"

Mark easily answered, "Death to all monsters."

Isoko smirked, and said, "Death to all monsters."

Reddron said, "Good team slogan. How about individual phrases?"

Mark was a bit more lost at that—

Isoko said, "That can be Mark's individual phrase. I'll work on my own stuff."

Reddron moved on. He put on a smile that was only 50% fake, but he was 100% enthused as he said, "Let's talk figurines..."

They spoke of poses, weaponry, what would be difficult to mass manufacture (Mark's floating weapons) versus what was easy (swords and weapons that clipped into the hands, or stuck into the base of the figurines).

Mark found himself asking, "What about life-size figurines? My uncles want one."

Like he had had this sort of conversation a hundred times before, Reddron hit his groove, and started with, "How this works is we come out with styles and whichever sells best we upscale and focus on…"

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The marketing and merchandising meeting took 2 hours, and by the end of it —thanks to some 3D printers and some people with neat Powers— Mark and Isoko walked out of there two bags each of mockups, and even a few plushies. They had one bag each of Blackvein and Platinum Princess, and another bag each of Miss Masher and VeryHuman. Reddron wanted the other two to show up for a merchandising meeting whenever they could.

Isoko was giggling as she angled the hovercraft off of the fountain, into the air, the bags slipping on the floor beside them, as she said, "We have plushies!"

Mark held up his own plushie, feeling so very weirdly happy as he looked at himself in black, scale-like fabric, with a few tassels trailing from his back. The tassels had little scales sewn onto the ends of them, and it was all so weirdly… cute. They even had a silver line around his helmet, angled into the scales, to represent Quark. Mark absolutely loved that little detail.

Isoko went, "Ahhh! We have figurines!"

Mark laughed and copied her happy little scream, "Ahhh!"

Isoko let out a truly dark, great laugh, "Ahhahahaahahaaaa!"

"That's a good villain laugh," Mark said, eyes wide, impressed. "I need to work on mine."

Isoko giggled a bit more as they flew into the level above Memphi where hovercraft flew. There was no traffic today, so it was smooth sailing back toward Blackthorn's.

Isoko asked, "So what do you think happened between Reddron and Noel? They're basically the same age, right? 40-ish?"

"40s? I thought Noel was 30?"

"Oh no no. He just looks younger."

Mark said, "Something was happening there… I don't know, though." Mark changed the subject, "But speaking of people's lives before we knew them: So I was talking to Tartu the other day, by the gate, and he… told me about his mother and why he hated me so much. Why he hated dragonists. Apparently it was a coverup by dragonists to hide their involvement in her murder, which happened when she went to help some dragonist neighborhood."

Isoko softly said, "Oh shit."

Mark nodded. "He was surprised I didn't know; that I didn't use Quark to go discover every secret I could find… Should I ask Quark to find out what happened between Noel and Reddron?"

Isoko kinda arched an eyebrow. She was thinking.

Quark pipped up, "I am not allowed to investigate non-threats, but as the current environs here are still considered dangerous, I have done so already, but only using public knowledge. Mainly Noel's blog posts, under the name BigHeroWriter, and a few assorted things recorded from that time."

Mark wasn't sure he wanted to actually dig into that sort of thing—

But Isoko said, "Lay it on us, Quark!"

Quark beep-booped, then said, "Reddron dated a woman 20 years ago and Noel stole her from him, but it did not work out. It was messy. Very messy."

Mark went, "Huh. Noel out here stealing girlfriends, huh?"

Isoko said, "Messy." And then she went, "You think Reddron was trying to steal us from Noel? Because Noel isn't actually a marketer guy, but surely there are other marketer guys. Is Reddron really the guy we should have met, like… Was that a setup by someone— Oh! Is Reddron from Crystal Tower, or from Memphi? If he was from Memphi then he should have had first pick… But maybe Crystal Tower is personally invested. Yeah, they're personally invested, for sure."

Mark asked, "Quark?"

"Reddron is from Crystal Tower, flown in here from Tokyo the other day, specifically to try and become your marketer. That is about all I can see without running into anti-spying measures."

"I knew it!" Isoko said.

Mark rapidly concluded, "That makes it a whole big 'thing', right? Not sure what kinda thing, but it's definitely a thing!"

"And Noel knew!" Isoko said, "And more than that: He decided to let it happen. A peace offering, maybe?"

"I don't know! It kinda, maybe felt that way?" Mark asked himself, trying to remember how everyone had felt when Noel and Reddron were looking at each other. But mostly, Mark recalled, "Reddron seemed really confident and he knew what he was doing, though, right?"

"Oh absolutely. He talked about overseeing the marketing for some Australian teams, and everyone knows Boomy Bob, and Reddron did that."

Mark shook his head. "I don't know Boomy Bob."

Isoko scoffed, and then she started talking about heroes and villains that Mark had barely ever heard of—

"Oh shit," Mark said, killing Isoko's momentum. "I meant to ask about getting figurines for my uncles."

Isoko grinned. "Wait a week and you can get them some of your own! But anyway, the heroes of Australia are a big deal. They got all that Outback outback and they do all the biggest spectacles in the industry. Their Lake Eyre is one of the largest freshwater lakes in the entire world and it's completely monster free! All of the biggest water battles are always filmed there because of that reason, and the tax rates for filming are great, according to Grandmother."

Mark said, "I heard about Lake Eyre— You've wanted to go there before?"

"Yeah I do!" Isoko said, happily. "They've got a great superhero community, and..."

It was nice to hear Isoko talk about things she liked, but it was more than that. All of this superhero stuff was more than just talk. More than the dreams of kids who grew up either watching family battle villains on the Saturday shows, like Isoko, or just watching those shows and praying to be like them someday, like Mark.

As Isoko landed the spiderbot at Blackthorn's, Mark realized there was someone he hadn't really considered with regard to Resurrection Day, or… for any reason at all.

Isoko parked.

And Mark asked, "Do you think Addavein saw Resurrection Day? That he… saw the living spell work its magic? In a way similar to how Planty told Blackthorn not to watch, for fear of Resurrection getting out into the world?"

Isoko hadn't really understood what Mark was saying at first, but then, as Mark explained, her eyes went wide. She went, "Ohhhhh…" Then she said, "Fuck if I know? But that's big, yeah?"

"… Could be? Hopefully… not."

"… Or maybe… yes?"

Mark winced. "I have no idea how I feel about that entire set of ideas, Isoko."

Isoko was quiet for a moment, and then she said, "Do you want to… Call him? You told him to call you if he wanted to contact you, right? Not to summon you whenever he wanted? So does that mean you have his phone number, too?"

Mark was tense. Eventually, he said, "… I never cared to keep track of that. Uh. Quark? Do I, uh, have Addavein's phone number?"

Quark said, "Pardon me, sir, but if I had had it, then I do not have it anymore."

Mark rapidly relaxed. "Oh thank the gods—"

Beep beep!

Mark and Isoko froze as Mark's 'phone' rang.

Quark made a noise that was sort of like clearing his throat, if one's throat was electronic and they were suddenly deeply troubled. "Apparently, we are under surveillance. An unknown number is calling, and it is being routed through some magical… things… that I have no basis to understand, only that they are there, like invisible switches in the air, and other forces are suddenly trying to infiltrate those signals, but they are unable to infiltrate those switches. I believe it is Addavein on the line for you, sir. Shall I let it go to voicemail?"

Mark took a breath. "Pick it up."

A click—

"Mark!" Addavein said, like a rumble and a voice all at once. "So that was some big battle, wasn't it! How are you?"

"Uh… I'm good, Addavein… How are you?"

"I'm good! I'm good. Nibbling on a seafood kaiju right now south of South Africa. Bit eldritch, but that just adds some deep spice. The flavors that dragons can taste are just amazing. If Leash ever offers you a Contract with you automatically being 100% of the person of the surviving dragon, you should take it!"

Mark felt unmoored in a weird way. He caught his metaphorical balance as much as he could, and he said, "I'm not interested in becoming a dragon… ever, as far as I know. I do not want to be a dragon."

"Oh sure, you say that now, but everyone needs to have a backup. There are some temporary magics that can save a person from death, even after their physical form dies, but those are only for the most advanced mages. You're keeping up on your studies, yes? Quark should have been able to show you around your binding by now. Protect is a good first spell!"

Mark felt a bit easier for some reason. Perhaps because Addavein was talking like an all-knowing… older brother? Or at least how Mark imagined an older brother would talk.

This was so weird.

Mark rolled with it, "I'm still cleaning up a lot of messes here, but magic and understanding the cultists through becoming an Inquisitor is next-ish on my list. Along with adamantium forging and other things. They're trying to get me to become a Grand Healer, too, but I'll have to save that for some other time."

"All good plans, Mark! The cult is one of the most horrific things in the Two Worlds, so it's always good to learn about those early. They were a lot more dangerous back when it was the dragonists versus the cultists, though. Ever since the Reveal… Well. You'll learn about that later, I am sure, and also about Thrashtalon. Thrashtalon is a whole new issue that is difficult to pull apart, but at least he was human.

"Nothing makes you quite realize that demons aren't human at all when you have one erupt out of a cultist who just wants to tap holes into the ground, and if you don't let it tap holes in the ground then it will tap holes into you. That one was pretty bad! Look it up. About 220 years ago, south of Okuana's Verdant Citadel, which is south of Earth's Germany, but on Daihoon, of course.

"It just wanted to tap holes into the ground, and if there wasn't ground, then it flattened the ground to make ground. Tens of thousands died. Eventually we handled it by filling in the holes as it went, and getting it to go in a wide circle. Took another 4 years to figure out how to actually pull it apart and kill it. That was a bad one. Singular in focus! That's the most dangerous thing for a demon to display. Remember that, Mark. The ones with a thousand ideas are weaker than the ones with one clear goal."

Mark connected a bunch of dots, saying, "So Thrashtalon, when he took over a bunch of demons, made them weaker?"

"They traded magical power for human understanding, yes," Addavein said. "That Living Resurrection was an example of a 'demon' with a singular focus. If any of you would have touched it while it was still understanding its own goals then it would have ripped you apart and put you back together, and that could have been bad. No real way of knowing how bad it could have been, since Timeweaver made sure that didn't happen."

Mark knew that Addavein was flowing the conversation that way, and that people were listening in on the conversation, and that Mark needed to ask what he wanted to ask… So he just went for it, starting with, "That's kinda the reason I wanted to call. It suddenly occurred to me that you probably saw Resurrection Day, and you clearly did. Planty made 'Resurrection' out to be a magic that shouldn't get out into the world. Did you see that spell work? Do you know that magic now? Do you, uh, agree with Planty?"

"Planty is a subject that I will not touch upon, but I can tell you that I do not know Resurrection. Oh sure, I know many of the pieces of that magic, but don't go expecting me to save you if you should die, Mark. I would not be fast enough at all, and I'm barely sure that Blackthorn could have learned it if he had been allowed to look. Blackthorn is a layabout, but he's rather gifted when it comes to magical understandings, so maybe he would have gotten it!" Addavein continued, "I'd need a proper teacher to learn that full spell, and even then I'd get it wrong 9 times out of 10. But, in the end, it's just advanced necromancy. Take a soul gem, capture a soul, take a body, keep it whole and alive enough, put the soul into the body; that's the normal methodology. The Living Resurrection did that without a stabilizing soul gem, and that is a big deal, to say nothing of bringing bodies back together and to life.

"Soul gems look like normal crystals to normal people, but they are not! You'd have to trust me on that one.

"So I imagine when you're strong enough, maybe we'll go out to Endless Daihoon to go looking for some myths and their mythological magic," Addavein said, a little excited, "Seeing Resurrection for the first time certainly got my desires inflamed! A legendary magic, Mark! Not seen for 7000 years! Right there for the viewing~ Ahh… it was nice to see. Do you have any specific questions about it? I might be able to answer~"

"… Not right now, because I don't even know what to ask, but… But thank you, for closing the rift here in Memphi."

Addavein's voice was softer, "Humans help humans! But, ah! I suppose I don't look like a human right now, but I'm working on that! Say… You're not, well, growing any tails, are you? Or wings? I was worried about that."

Mark felt out of his own body right now, but not in the way he had been out of his body with Addavein. Mark said, "No weird growths… But my scales are easier to make, and I did get Incorruptible Body."

"Ah! Excellent. That one's a weird one! One of the very few ways to resist shavallian~"

Mark found himself nodding. "Yup."

"Well I'll let you get back to it. I can't let the people sneaking through the phone lines think they know how to track me. Talk to you later!"

"… Later!"

Click.

Mark collapsed on the couch in the spiderbot hovercraft, saying, "OH MY GODS."

Isoko, who had been there the whole time, exclaimed, "OH MY GODS, MARK!"

And then Mark giggled nervously. "Holy shit."

Isoko went, "Ugh!" and, "Gaaah!" And then finally, a very, "Ahhhhhh!"

Mark had his own undignified, "Ahhhhh," after a while.