Chương 25: Vulture

Mason stared at his little sister draining her slushy with a happy face, inwardly thinking that Doom was paying for flavored ice for a 14-year-old girl, and that instantly made him feel better. Taking a sip of his tea, because he despised coffee, Mason asked, "So, how is High School?" At the start of September, Audrey had integrated into Midtown High School, because of course she would. At the question, she looked up, shrugging like it was no big thing, "Been there, done that." He snorted, "Stop being a smartass."

She rolled her eyes, but still said, "It's fine, I guess. People started freaking out when they heard you were my brother; they're being weird. I got teachers singing your praises like you were the Messiah or something." This made Mason chuckle as he shook his head.

"Sure, if you consider 'B-' extraordinary and not speaking to anybody the work of the Lord."

"They said you were burdened with great power."

"More like great anxiety." She scowled in distaste, "People are weird." Mason shrugged, explaining, "It's just how they are. It's easier to think I've been hiding I was extraordinary all along than to accept I changed, because if I could, it means anyone can." Audrey suddenly looked at him with bright eyes, asking, "Are you going to teach me then?" Mason was not surprised by the request, and asked back, "What for? You want to grow big like your big brother? To fight for a living?"

"Urgh, I'm fine then. I don't need your stupid powers anyway. I'll just call you if there's any creeps." Mason's face hardened as he unconsciously added an edge to his voice, repeating, "Creeps? At school?" Audrey stared at him, which made him self-conscious. He relaxed, but it was too late as Audrey grinned cheerfully, "Worried about your cutest little sister?" He snorted and pressed on nonetheless, "About those creeps then?"

She slurped on her slushy happily, replying, "No, I've got weirdos at school, but not any weirder than you were. The creeps are online. What kind of adult watches the videos of a 14-year-old girl?" Mason hummed in agreement when a young, girly voice asked beside them, "E-excuse me." The siblings turned their heads to look at a girl who had walked up to their table, clutching her phone nervously. Mason instantly lowered his guard, seeing it was a teenage girl, with her mother watching over from nearby.

Having the two of them staring at her seemed to intimidate her even more, but thankfully, Audrey easily read the mood, asking with a warm smile, "Wanna take a picture?" Mason took the picture for them, and as the girl walked away all giddy, Mason asked, "How many subscribers do you have now?" She tilted her head up, puffing out her chest proudly, "Hmm, nothing extraordinary, just 1. 2 million. Whatever."

Mason chuckled lowly, feeling truly impressed, even though he recognized the pretend nonchalance for what it was. This was 2010, not 2026; with over a million subscribers, she was probably within the top ten on all of YouTube, or close to it. He clapped his hands lightly, congratulating, "Good for you. You must be getting a lot of money from your videos then." The happy Audrey suddenly glared at her brother, obviously annoyed.

That was because while Audrey was generating money from ad revenue, because she was only 14, the money was going to their parents, who regulated how much she could access each month. And Mason knew it perfectly well. Technically, the money was still hers, but it was currently locked into high-yield investments. It was for her own good, but she was a teenager. Old Mason had felt similarly. Although he did not earn any money by himself, their parents had been investing for them since they were born.

Thankfully for the Mason of today, Old Mason had not depleted his investments upon reaching adulthood, meaning he still had a bit under two hundred thousand dollars worth of investments on the side. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Nowadays, most of the money Mason made went to those accounts, since he lived quite frugally since he knew better than to trust banks with his money.

But back to Audrey, since she was actively making money, Mason estimated that by the time she turned 18, adding up the money she was making and the one their parents were investing for her, she would probably be a millionaire. Everyone knew better than to tell her that, so she was the only one left unaware of it, but she was pretty much set up for life, so it was indeed for her own good that her ad revenue did not go directly to her.

Mason picked up his tea, content with himself for having annoyed his little sister, when he sensed something, and promptly froze, before his head snapped to the sky like a hawk on the hunt. The weather was getting colder with the passing months, but the weather was pretty good that day, with only some passing clouds. This made the two figures diving down their way all the more obvious, if only one looked up. The one in the front was winged, but those were artificial wings.

The one behind, a smaller figure of blue and red, was propelling himself by shooting webs, chasing the former. It was Spider-Man chasing the Vulture. A second later, Mason realized they were not just passing by, but plunging their way.

"Is that?" Audrey wondered, having looked up after seeing Mason doing so. His gaze still fixed on the rapidly descending Vulture, Mason warned, "Pick up your phone." He did not check, but he trusted Audrey had taken her phone from the table as he grabbed onto it, his muscles flexing as he infused them with Chi, and threw it at the Vulture. Vulture was not just passing by; he had been diving right for Mason.

How the villain knew where he was, or even why he would attack him, Mason had no idea, but he was not about to allow Audrey to be endangered. Vulture had been going fast, which made it all the more impossible for him to dodge as the table was suddenly thrown in his face. However, his reaction speed was probably superhuman as he still managed to bring down one of his wings in time, slicing the table in half.

Mentally noting the immense sharpness of the wings, Mason immediately followed after the table and mercilessly drove his knee right into the Vulture's chest, using his Chi to reinforce his knee. Vulture unceremoniously dropped to the ground, his harness nearly falling off his back. It had taken most of the damage for the villain, but because of the sheer speed he had been going at, several tons of force had suddenly been exerted upon it.

Mason himself landed on his other foot, keeping himself balanced on it as a dull ache shot through his leg. His knee was fine thanks to his Chi's protection, but it still hurt. Placing himself in between Audrey and the Vulture, Mason stared at the villain with a grave look and asked, "Why attack me? If all you wanted was a beating, you could have simply asked nicely." Vulture stared when Spider-Man landed on a nearby pole, not quite sure of what to say.

Cautious, Mason extended his Divine Sense towards the Vulture to counter any attacks he may attempt, when he came to a sudden stop. He could feel that Vulture was internally debating whether to attack or flee, his thoughts a disjointed mess. But it was something else that got Mason's attention: the harness. Vulture's wings looked almost natural in the way his costume had been designed, with the ample wing size covering most of the machine below.

However, Mason's strike had broken the metal plates protecting the front, exposing what must have been the core of the machine. It meant nothing to Mason's naked eye. Just some electrical wiring and rotating gyrospheres. But to his Divine Sense? It was the key. The key he had been looking for over a month now, staring at a flame. In that moment, he understood he had been going at the Dao all wrong, that he had been attempting to force himself into learning mystical knowledge that was not there in the first place.

To be more precise, Mason had been too ambitious, wanting to learn everything there was to know about the Fire Dao, to learn it in one fell swoop. It would be like a toddler attempting to learn all of Math in one go. Mason himself had been unaware of it, because he did not know how the Dao even worked. Just like with this harness. Mason had now taken the first step towards understanding the Gravity Dao, and that was through the 'Push' concept of Gravity.

It was only one minor aspect of what Gravity was and could do, but that was where he was supposed to start. Similarly, he had been attempting to understand everything Fire was, where he should have been studying lesser forms of it. And while Mason was making this new discovery, Spider-Man finally jabbed from above, "Naughty naughty bird, you shouldn't be pecking at people!"

Vulture gritted his teeth, looking up at the hero that had been annoying him across half the city now, and said, "This is none of your business, so scram already." Spider-Man balanced himself on the light pole with unnatural precision as he replied with a chuckle, "You're a bright green chicken flying over New York; of course you're my business!" Vulture snarled, but instead of attacking Spider-Man, leapt for Mason, "Your head is mine!" Vulture's speed was impressive, but not enough to counter precognition.

Still, what he said drew Mason's attention as he tilted his body just enough to dodge the razor-sharp wings and slammed his palm in Vulture's chest. He did not reinforce it with Chi this time, and instead tried out his new power, expanding his Divine Sense to mobilize the Gravity Dao. Because the Dao worked differently from Chi. It was not a power Mason had inside him; it was the power of the universe.

Only through careful manipulation of his Divine Sense could he manipulate reality according to his understanding of the Dao. In essence, it was very minor reality warping. And it was very minor indeed, as while Vulture was pushed back, that had more to do with Mason's blow than the application of the Gravity Dao, or rather the 'Push Concept'. Yeah, 'Concept' felt like an appropriate name for this first step towards the Dao, he decided.

Inwardly satisfied with his superb naming sense, Mason immediately followed his palm strike with a second and a third, both of these reinforced with Chi instead. Vulture sneered in dismissal, none of the punches really hurting him, but as he attempted to swing his wing at Mason, the familiar feeling of enhanced strength from the harness was absent. He ended up punching the air in front of Mason, his wings dropped down like they had been deactivated.

Only now did he realize that the reason he had not felt those punches was because Mason had aimed them at his harness and broken it. Then, to avoid any accidents, Mason dragon clawed the exposed core of the harness, plucking it out and thus putting an end to the Vulture as the villain was turned back into a regular man. Worse than that, actually, as the weight of the harness was no longer canceled, pinning him to the ground.