Chương 39: Lawyering Up

Lady Bullseye felt her strength leave her as Mason pierced his hand through her chest, his hand shaped like a spear. She wanted to whisper a promise of vengeance, a curse, to say something, but Mason discarded her like a used towel. Feeling his Divine Sense being rapidly used up, with another third of it being consumed to keep the gravity field up for a single second, Mason deactivated it.

The time he had spent comatose in the Gravity Room had helped with his understanding of the Gravity Dao, helping him discover a new use for both the Push and Pull Concepts. Instead of manipulating his own gravitational pull, he affected the planet's, which was much stronger. That made the effects of the Dao much stronger, which was how he could use it on so many people at once, but it also took a lot of Divine Sense to pull off.

With both Bullseye and Lady Bullseye dead, the rest of the ninjas did not represent much of a threat any longer, but they still fought to the last man. By the end of it, Mason was covered in blood, both from his own injuries and the ninjas he had killed, and he could feel with a quick swipe of his Divine Sense that some of them were still clinging to life.

That was only a few among the hundred-plus ninjas that had attacked, though, and having survived his initial attack did not mean they would live through their injuries. Besides, both Bullseye and his Lady were dead. Standing alone in the field of corpses, Mason stood still, his eyes closed as he once more extended his Divine Sense, this time to the Fire Dao. He intended to use the Concept of Ignition to burn the blood coating him, but he quickly got the sense that it was beyond his capabilities.

He would have to go with a plain old shower then. Mason turned his head as he heard the door of the store open, and saw Minx there, observing the carnage. The people who had been unfortunate enough to be shopping were cowering inside, obviously scared. Not that Mason could blame them. He was recognized as a wanted mass murderer, a 'super-villain', and he had just killed a small army of ninjas in a bloody battle.

Although he had not used a bladed weapon, shattering their inner organs had caused a fair share of blood to be coughed out. Now, things had not gone exactly the way Mason wanted them to, but he did not regret what he had done. The rage he felt at Minx's kidnapping had subdued itself after the first dozen kills, but he kept slaughtering the Hand Ninjas because he still believed it needed to be done.

Mason did believe in redemption, which was why he had made a point not to kill a single one of Fisk's men at the construction site. They were bad people who did bad things, but they still had free will and could turn over a new leaf. The people trained by the Hand were stripped of that free will, though they were conditioned from childhood to obey orders.

Had a single one of them tried to run, Mason would not even have chased, because that would have been enough to prove some level of personal agency, but even the very last one of them had still tried to kill Mason, despite understanding perfectly well he would die. He did not want people like that going after his family. Or Minx. Opening his eyes, Mason saw Minx cautiously approach him, looking him up and down. He smiled, rolling his shoulders.

"I'm fine. Probably better than you with that busted ankle." Minx pursed her lips, taking another look around, her eyes lingering a second longer on Bullseye, who had suffered a particularly brutal death, and whispered, "I'm sorry." Mason looked at her in surprise, correcting immediately, "There's nothing you have to apologize for, Minx. This was my fault, not yours. You never should have been involved in this mess."

But she shook her head, saying, "You had to kill so many people because of me, I-" Mason abruptly closed in on her, grabbing her by the shoulders as he cut her off before she could spiral down.

"Wow, there, that wasn't on you. I was angry, sure, but I would have killed these guys regardless. They are a cult of assassins who I already suspected would target my close ones. They only managed to reach you because of my mistake. But they were dying either way." She looked up at him, biting her lip.

"And you're okay? I understand you needed to kill them, but still…" Mason took another look at the sea of bodies around them. He did feel fine. He did not like what he had done in the slightest, but he had already known for a while that this would be the only logical conclusion things might reach. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. Letting go of her, Mason said, "I'm fine, really. But I really need a shower, and a deep scrub.

Also, you should be safe now, but know that I will be here. I still have a Kingpin to take down, but I'll be keeping an eye on you. Promise." Minx stared at him for a moment before sighing, "I would offer you to stay at my place, but I'd have the FBI at my door in an hour. Probably will anyway, but it wouldn't be safe. I wish I could help you more, but here you are, worrying about me." Mason smirked at the rare trace of insecurity from Minx.

"Stop it with the self-flagellation. You could be an all-powerful Goddess, and I would still worry about you. I'll probably be busy for the coming weeks, dismantling a criminal empire and clearing myself of my criminal charges, but I'll see you soon, alright?" Minx looked at the corpses again, internally wondering how Mason could possibly claim innocence in this situation, but she stopped thinking about it, giving Mason a quick hug before saying, "That's a promise then. Don't die stupidly."

Mason gave her a silent nod before picking her up. She said nothing as he leapt away, carrying her to her apartment. After dropping her there and getting a kiss on the cheek for his troubles, Mason hesitated for a moment about where to go before eventually deciding to go to Danny. There had been quite a few people watching him fight the Hand, so any place the Police thought he might return to would undoubtedly be watched. Rand Tower was one of the only places they could not connect to him.

There was one other place Mason wanted to go to, but he knew it was impossible. His parents' home would be just as heavily guarded as his own apartment, if not more, and his family were probably not there anyway, since it was the middle of the day. Still, after three days of being wanted, and what he had just done, he owed them a call. Mason hesitated on who to call, before eventually going for his father. He was a lawyer, so he was probably the most appropriate.

Mason's phone was cracked, but still in working order. It rang twice before being answered by a neutral, "Son?"

"Darth Vader?" There was a beat of silence before Eric clicked his tongue.

"Dumbass. This call will be traced. I'm surprised you haven't been caught yet if you kept your phone with you."

"It's fine, I'll be on the move. I'll drop my phone after this. Is everyone alright?" Eric replied calmly, "You're the one we're worrying about. What kind of trouble did you land yourself in to get wanted by the fucking UN? Even Tony's been stumped." Mason smirked, "Nothing too crazy. I'm toppling a criminal empire, and fighting against an ancient cult of assassins. Speaking of which, things might get a tad complicated in the near future for my… innocence."

Although Eric kept his voice level, Mason still picked up on a faint tension as he asked, "Things are already more than a 'tad' complicated." Mason opted to explain directly, "That construction site was a front for a massive criminal operation. I made sure not to kill anyone there, but a mutant woman came in and killed them all. So proving my innocence would still have been possible."

"But something else happened since then?" Mason kept his voice light, but there was no softening it.

"That cult of assassins I told you about? They kidnapped Minx. I had to go save her, but they sent everyone they had after me. And they were relentless. I had to kill over a hundred of them. In broad daylight, in the middle of the street." Eric went silent, taking in the revelation. Mason was not sure what to expect, but his father immediately went into lawyer mode, asking after a few seconds, "In the middle of the street? Describe the scene. Faithfully."

Mason could not help a little smirk at his father's trust, and described the whole sequence of events to him. Eric thought about it for a while before saying, "I… think that technically falls under self-defence."

"I killed over a hundred people, Dad."

"While defending yourself and a friend. You were in the street, so security cameras definitely picked up on the fight. I'm sending people to secure the footage right now. If we see you only standing your ground on the video, and that they are the ones attacking you… that's self-defence. The only problem is that the law is not geared towards super-powered people.

Tony got that Senate Hearing precisely because the law does not know what to do with people with superhuman capabilities, so you fall in a sort of gray zone." Mason hummed thoughtfully before saying, "Well, it's still good news. And you should have some time to work things out. I'll be busy in the time to come with dismantling Fisk's criminal operations, and once I'm done with him, I'll be traveling to Japan to erase that cult. So I'll probably be busy for a few months. Maybe more."

"I… see. You're really laying it out on me today. Still, I'm happy to hear from you. You've given us quite the scare, you know." Mason stopped, passing a hand through his hair as he sighed, "I know. And I'm sorry. But this had to be done. They already attacked Audrey and me, and now Minx. I've got to stop them."

"And where will this end? Say you stop them, won't another just take their place? I'm not telling you to do nothing, but is this really the best way?" Mason replied with conviction, "It is. Besides, it's not just me they are hunting. They've killed countless people over the years; someone has to stop them." Eric hummed thoughtfully, neither agreeing nor disagreeing, and he ended up asking, "Want me to say anything to the girls?" Mason smiled and said, "Just tell them I'm fine.

I'll leave it up to you whether you want to explain the situation to them or not." Mason hung up and crushed his phone for good.