Marvelous Martial Arts (A Marvel Story)

Mason spent a few hours meditating, circulating his Essence to recover from his injuries, and only when he had recovered completely did he stop.

All in all, by the time he was done, less than 24 hours had passed since the fight. A bit more than 17, to be precise. This was precious data about his powers.

Putting on the clothes the Fantastic Four had had the decency to give him, as he did not fancy flailing around in the skin-tight suit they had put him in, Mason looked for anything of his that might have been left behind, but found nothing.

Not that he was surprised. His clothes had been damaged while he helped evacuate the building, ruined by the fire on the bottom floor, and buried by the fight. He figured his phone had not survived getting punched by the Hulk.

He should have bought a Nokia.

Stepping out of his room, however, he was surprised to find someone waiting for him. Someone unexpected.

The room Mason had been in was connected to a sort of living area, which told Mason he was on the upper five floors, which were normally reserved for the Fantastic Four.

Mason supposed this was a guest area, seeing there was a whole kitchen and living room. Had it been any other time, Mason would have wondered what exactly would constitute a guest for the Fantastic Four, but he supposed he fit the bill.

Much like many other floors on the tower, this one had a glass exterior, and with how high up they were, Mason could see a whole side of New York. It was the end of the morning, approaching noon, so the sun was high in the sky.

And there, standing by the glass wall, staring out, was none other than the Invisible Girl. She was dressed in the usual white and blue costume of the Fantastic Four, her long blond hair flowing freely behind her.

She did not appear to have noticed his presence, so he greeted her, ”Good morning.”

She turned around, surprised for a moment, before smiling softly, ”You are finally out. I was starting to wonder if you had not fallen back asleep. You would have been entitled to some more rest.”

The Invisible Girl was surprisingly young. The day before, Mason did not get much of a good look at her, courtesy of the Hulk, but now that he stood before her and there wasn’t anything trying to kill him, he realized she was in her mid-twenties at best. Possibly Elena’s age, at most a year or two older.

Mason found himself smiling easily as he replied, ”I don’t usually take this long. I must say, it was my first time getting smashed by a Hulk. And thinking about it, I still haven’t thanked you for sparing me from that second serving.”

He joined her by the glass wall, overlooking the city. He expected her to react similarly to Reed, by shifting gratitude, but she instead turned back towards the city, and silently accepted it as she changed the subject, ”The city is beautiful from up here, isn’t it?”

Mason looked. First with his eyes.

Baxter Building was in the heart of Manhattan, and was thus surrounded by several of the city’s tallest skyscrapers. Still, from this particular angle, none of them got in the way, allowing them to see to the city’s edge, and even somewhat beyond.

Seeing the city from this high up gave it a certain sense of unity, or of cohesion perhaps. While in the streets, the buildings could easily turn into a disproportionate maze, an endless expanse of abominations of steel and concrete.

But up there, things started becoming more organized, almost like a Roman camp in its layout. It gave him a unique perception of the city.

Mason had one more sense, though. This time, he reached out with his awakened Breath.

The Three Treasures, while undeniably part of cultivation, had immediately reminded Mason of another power system from the very moment the old man he called Master had described their powers once awakened: Haki.

It had honestly matched so well it had astonished Mason.

Essence, once awakened, could weaponize the energy of life, allowing one to coat their body with this weaponized version of their Essence. Mechanically, it worked just about the same as Armament Haki.

Breath was the connection of all things, and when awakened, granted him insight into the ‘heart’ of other living beings. This could be used to sense the location and intent of said living beings, similarly to Observation Haki.

As for Spirit, he had not yet awakened it, and his Master told him it was the most difficult one to awaken. It was why it was somewhat shrouded in mystery, since less than a dozen people across history had awakened it.

Even Mason’s own master had still not awakened it to this day. But there were still some who had, and according to what had been passed down, the awakened Spirit was often associated with the concept of sovereignty.

In other words, Conqueror’s Haki.

Mason assumed Oda had taken Neidan and the Three Treasures as inspiration for creating Haki.

However, while the two were close, they were not exactly the same. Breath, most notably, was not simply sensing others. It was a type of energy on its own.

Essence was physical energy, also known as lifeforce or the energy of life. Spirit was the energy of the soul, spiritual energy, or spiritual sense. Breath was the primordial energy of the universe, something that bound everything together, also known as Qi.

The most common use of it was to sense others in combat, but in reality, it was about understanding one’s surroundings. The stronger one’s Breath was, the stronger their connection would become to the surrounding Qi.

And so, while Mason’s Qi was still rather weak, although that was a relative statement considering he had nearly reached the peak humanity had ever achieved, he stretched out his sixth sense, his Qi.

To Qi, distance did not matter as much as intent did. That was why he could easily spread this sense over the whole city. It was useless combat-wise, as he could not focus on anyone so distant, and could only feel the general vibe of the city at his current level.

However, it did give him a rather unique sense of the city, something no one else could feel.

And New York City felt… busy. Active. Like a tireless machine that never stopped, filled with a thousand thousand gears. The city sprawled out, yet at the same time remained contained. This duality felt surprisingly enlightening, as if there was something waiting just beyond his reach, something monumental he was close to attaining yet just falling short.

Suddenly remembering the Invisible Girl had asked him a question, Mason said, ”It is stunning. I think I’m jealous you guys get to see this every day.”

”You should see it at dawn then. From here, you can see the sunlight gradually filling the city, while the city itself becomes active. It almost looks like a giant anthill getting awakened by the sun.”

Remembering where the Fantastic Four came from before this, Mason asked, ”How does it compare to Central City?”

”From up here? Can’t really say, we did not have a tower back then. But if I had to pick something, I’d say New York is a lot flatter.”

”Flatter?” he repeated, amused.

The Invisible Girl chuckled along, ”I mean that literally. Central City is in the middle of the mountains. Lots of ups and downs; it quickly gets tiring. You quickly learn to leave your house only if you really need to.”

She sent him a look and asked, ”What about you? Have you always lived in New York?”

Technically, no, but Mason could not exactly say he had visited other countries in another life, so he replied instead, ”Born and bred here. I would like to travel around sometime in the future though.”

She looked back toward the city, her expression settling on something unreadable as she asked, ”Aren’t you afraid you will never be able to leave time for yourself doing this?”

”Doing this?”

”Being a superhero. It’s a time-consuming job,” she gave him a look, and added, ”They’ve given you a name already. Solis.”

The term felt familiar. It took him a moment to remember where it came from.

”Latin for sun? Why would they call me that?”

The Invisible Girl shrugged, ”It was a general consensus. I suppose the first one to propose it had a reason, but most probably thought it sounded better than the alternatives.” Her eyes gained a mischievous glint as she asked, ”Would you rather have been called the Hunk? Or Pipe Lord?”

Solis. Maybe it was because of the golden glow his Essence granted his fist? To be honest, Mason had never really thought about a superhero name, as while he did always intend on becoming one, he never planned to hide his real identity, so he simply assumed people would use his name.

Maybe people needed to give him a name, to cope with a character larger than life. To turn him from a man to a symbol. Or maybe it was only a matter of habits.

Whatever it was, he could have gotten something worse than Solis. Much worse. He shuddered at the possibility of people starting to call him ‘The Hunk’.

Mason looked at the Invisible Girl and asked, ”Did you get to choose your name, or was it given to you?”

”Hmm… bit of both, I suppose?”

Mason snorted, ”Yeah, I figured you did not choose the ‘girl’ part. Although, I must admit, I’m not sure why anyone would call you that, considering you can create force-fields capable of stopping the Hulk.”

The Invisible Girl lowered her head, her voice growing more subdued as she revealed, ”It was a new development, actually. I never knew I could do that.”

If she had been relaxed before, she now oozed uncertainty and lack of confidence. This did not match the image Mason had of the Invisible Woman. Although he supposed she was only the Invisible Girl here.

Or, scratch that, she was only Susan Storm.

Chuckling softly, he said, ”Well, you certainly chose the best moment to awaken that power. I would have been left a piece of flat bread without you.”

She grew silent at that, not replying to it. Mason respected her silence until she finally asked uncomfortably, ”It’s a stupid question, but I got to ask. How did you get out of that building? How did you laugh?”

Mason knew what she meant. She was not asking how he did it physically; she was asking how he could laugh as he baited a monster capable of flattening tanks with the back of his hand.

Old habits tempted him to give her a sarcastic response to avoid the question, but he decided against it. Still, he did not answer straight away, and chose to ask a question of his own, ”Why did you become a hero, Susan?”

She looked slightly taken aback by him calling her by her first name out of nowhere, but she did not comment on it.

”I thought the story was well known by now, but we first traveled to the Negative Dimension, where-”

Mason stopped her, ”No, I’m not asking you where you got your powers. I don’t want to know how you became super; I want to know how you became a hero.”

Susan made a small sound in realization before frowning and saying, ”It was not long after we came back. A man calling himself the Mole Man attacked Central City, along with his monsters. Back then, there was no one else to protect the city, so we stepped in.”

”So you did not choose to become a hero. Do you regret it?”

”No, of course not!”

”Why? What’s so good about being a hero? Isn’t it dangerous? Don’t you stake your life on a regular basis?”

Susan frowned. ”But that’s different. I can turn myself invisible. And I am part of a team, fighting with my family. You’re just human, or close to it. And you threw yourself at what should have been, by all accounts, death.”

Mason grinned, ”Ah, so that’s where we differ. Or where you think we do. Of course death is scary. But personally, I find the prospect of sitting by while I could do something to be far more haunting.”

”But by that logic, shouldn’t you spend all day in the streets, stopping every crime and injustice you come across?”

Mason shrugged, ”Some would. But I suppose where we draw the line is what divides heroes. I personally do not believe myself to be the solution to every problem in the world, nor do I have the perfect answer to every one of them. Yesterday, had I not intervened, you would have died, and the Hulk would have spread his rampage to the rest of the city, so I stepped in. Besides, I did not consider I would die a single instant. And I accepted that death was a possibility.”

It was pretty simple to Mason. He might have known the Hulk was far stronger than he was, and that his chances of winning were null, but winning the fight was never the point anyway. And his words might sound contradictory, but there was a difference between accepting death and confidence. They were not mutually exclusive either. Not to Mason, at least.

”I… think I understand.”

Mason smiled, making sure to keep his tone gentle and respectful as he replied, ”No, I don’t think you do, but that’s fine. Confidence is something you build, not something you are born with. And I believe that all that’s left for you to do is find yourself.”