The Hero?

~Chapter 24~ Masks Fall

I appeared in the control room to see the entire crew was there just laughing and joking with each other as always. I assumed they weren't aware of what was really going on; it was going to be hard to break the news. When I walked closer to them, they all turned to me and went silent.

"Do I kill the mood that much?" I jokingly said to all of them.

They remained silent, "Guys? What's going on," I asked now with a slight touch of concern,

They turned a monitor towards me showing the security footage found in city grounds. I  saw that Aura and my father was making their way towards WinterCrest. It wasn't a surprise, father never liked having control taken from him, I suppose that's why him and Aura got a long enough to work together.

Suddenly the monitors glitched, and Jack appeared on the screens.

"Hello 'friends' as you all probably now know, I have Aura's powers coursing through me, and finally I can burn the world to the ground and take it for myself."

"I won't let you do that Sean, it's not who you are and you know it," I responded to him with his real name before anyone could say anything.

"Are we going by real names now?" He chuckled,

"If you have a hard time remembering Mark, you aren't exactly the hero type either... I wouldn't be so concerned by me right now, considering your father's the threat that could destroy everything, and also, you know nothing about the real me. But with all that aside, I'm not here to start a war... I'm here to propose an alliance," He said trying to sound as distant as possible,

"Why should we take this alliance, after this thing with my father is over you'll just go back to being the villain and hurting other people, why wouldn't we just stop you here and now," I asked him with a frustrated tone I didn't mean to come out making me sound condescending.

"Because you can't. And you'll never be able to... At least not until you've given in completely to that darkness you've been messing with your whole life," He responded causing me to take a step back.

"How about this, I'll make you guys a deal, we stop Mark's father, and I won't be the villain and hurt people," He proposed,

"Why should we trust you," I inquired him,

"Well unless you have some new unspeakable power that can defeat you father... I don't think you have a choice," he responded mockingly,

Everyone then turned away from the screen and look at me with a questioning expression, as if they were asking if I did have such power.

"Fine. Prepare your people and we will meet at the old arena where me and you trained, I'm sure by now you know how to get there," I said reluctantly agreeing to his deal.

He gave me a nod before disappearing off the screen.

I turned to my team looked at them intently and said "Gather everyone and tell them it's time to use all their training, and they should be prepared for what's to come," and then I left the room alone.

I teleported to my apartment, and Cassidy was there waiting for me.

"Another fight against your father? I never thought I'd see that day again..." She said as if she was surprised,

"Don't sound so surprised, we both knew this day would come again," I said as I made my way to my hidden armoury,

"I just never would have thought you'd walk this path again. I always thought your mother's goodness suited you better and would overpower that urge, but I guess you gave up on trying a long time ago" She said as she made her way to the door,

"Where are you going?" I asked confused since I thought she would join me in this fight,

"Home. Call me a coward if you want, but this isn't my fight. I came here to visit an old friend, not get involved in what could be a war. Maybe one day we'll meet again Mark, after all this fighting is over, but for now I wish you well," she responded before speeding away to who knows where.

I let out a sigh, opened the lock to the armoury and entered. I closed the door behind me and took my necklace off, instantly I could feel my body reverting back to my real form. The armoury was quite a small room so there wasn't much take other then a few things. I looked to the far wall of the room and there it was, my real suit. A fully black tight under suit lined with graphene to keep everything together, then goes on the armour plates that are made of layers of buckypaper and dyneema, the strongest materials out there. The suit was very body forming and had red outlining my arms and ending at my neck. My suit was similar to Nightwing's red suit in the comics the difference was that everything was black but the red going down my arms and the red around my neck, there was no emblem or anything of that sorts on my chest, as it was easier to hid myself when I went on missions. I looked into the mirror with my suit on, admiring myself since I was always a little bit of a narcissist. My eyes kept going back and forth between red and brown, which meant I only had little time before my powers came back full force. I grabbed all the weaponry needed and my favourite dagger, before exiting my armoury. I decided to leave the necklace behind as I'll need all my powers if I wanted to stand any chance at all against my father. 

After checking to make sure I had everything one last time, I teleported to the abandoned arena. There I saw Sean and his people waiting for me. People from WinterCrest have started to show up, so I took this intermediate period to go and sort out a plan with Sean. I was walking towards him when there was a sudden shockwave that went through the ground, causing most of the people to lose their balance. I managed to stay stable, and looked around to see what was happening.

"They're here!" Sean shouted to everyone and me,

I gave him a nod before unleashing my own shockwave and a spell that made the entire arena disappear. Everyone looked shocked at the amount of power I had unleashed; we were now in an open field, and I could see that Aura was on the far end of the field but my father was no where in sight.

"I don't want you fight you Aura, please, don't do this!" I shouted out to her,

"I don't either, but I must do I what can to assure the victory of your father," She shouted back as she started to approach me,

Before she could get too close, my father appeared seemingly out of no where and grabbed Aura by the back of the neck, and plunging a sword into her body.

"That you will." He said in a cold and hollow tone before absorbing all of Aura's stolen powers and life essence.