Marvelous Martial Arts (A Marvel Story)

Crushing the improvised weapons in his hands into a ball, Mason flicked it into the face of one of the goons and said, ”A for effort, but you got to focus.”

Since she had appeared, Mason had his Divine Sense trained on Typhoid Mary, since he expected her to be the largest threat. What he felt was somewhat strange, as while there was some feeling of danger, the one thing he would attribute to her would be instability.

It was like her mind was on the verge of shattering, which Mason guessed was no good for psionics. Still, his first instinct had been to speed-blitz her, take her down before she could try anything, but seeing Fisk’s men’s reaction to her, he had changed his mind.

They were scared of her.

Wouldn’t they be even more scared of someone capable of toying with her?

Mason looked at the henchmen, smiling when he saw the one on the ground with a bloody nose because he threw that metal ball at him, and said, ”Alright, I’ll be honest, I’m here to send a message. Beating up crazy here will do, so you guys have two paths ahead of you.”

Ducking under a larger projectile thrown by Typhoid Mary, Mason picked up a gun, and several of the henchmen aimed at him, so he raised a hand and gestured for them to stop, before pointing the gun at his own chest.

This made even Typhoid Mary pause, and they all watched in consternation as Mason shot himself.

Except that he did not fall. Mason was not bulletproof, but by gathering all of his Chi in the precise spot where the bullet hit, he could barely stop it from penetrating his skin.

It was usually a nearly impossible tactic to use in combat since he needed to concentrate all his Chi in such a small, precise area, and it had to be the instant the bullet hit. The slightest imprecision would mean getting shot, and there would rarely be only one gun shooting at him.

But these guys did not know that. All they saw was a bullet that crumbled against Mason’s skin, unable to even pierce the outermost layer.

”Honestly, I’m doing this to save time. Your bullets barely register as mosquito bites, and while I’m more vulnerable to punches and knives, I doubt any of you could hit me. If you had some ninjas from the Hand, maybe you’d get a chance, but I don’t see them.”

Old man Izo would probably consider this dishonorable. But then again, he used to be part of a clan of ninjas, so maybe he would have done the same.

In any case, Mason did not see any problem with using deception, and it was extremely efficient, as several of the men looked between Mason and Typhoid Mary before taking a step back. And that step back emboldened others to take one themselves, and under a snowball effect, they started running.

Only half a dozen remained, and they had let go of their guns, naively believing Mason’s claim. The logic held, to a certain extent. Mason certainly appeared to be arrogant enough to tell them his weakness, considering he was hitting their operation under his real identity.

Winking at the henchman with a broken nose, one of the few who had remained, Mason threw himself at Typhoid Mary, intent on ending the fight. However, as he approached her, he felt a different intent from her.

Instead of the usual telekinesis, she had something else in mind. Mason’s Divine Sense could not tell what exactly it was, but that it would clear everything in front of her, so Mason made a feint and leaped at the closest henchman instead, slipping past his defences as easily as he would with a civilian, and held him by the back of the neck, using him as a human shield.

The next moment, Typhoid Mary threw both of her hands forward, from which two gusts of flames were projected. They spread out in a cone before her, mostly hitting empty air, and two of the henchmen, including the one Mason protected himself with.

And unfortunately for them, these were some hot flames. Even with the protection of his human shield, Mason felt tingling in the hand that was holding him up. And that was considering his increased resistance to fire.

He was not quite burned, but he was protected. However, in a sense, the two henchmen were fortunate, as they did not get quite as damaged as they should have.

The flames were not natural ones. They flashed for an instant, reaching extremely high temperatures, before disappearing half a second later. It was still enough to burn them, but it was mostly the surface. With some luck, they would survive.

Now was not the time to care about them. Discarding the henchman to the side, Mason stopped his taunting, attacking Typhoid Mary with rapid strikes. He could feel that her psyche had recoiled after that fiery blast. She was not quite hurt, but she definitely would not be able to do it again immediately.

And physically, she simply could not keep up with Mason.

She barely had the time to cross her arms when Mason delivered three rapid strikes, one to her abdomen, a second to her solar plexus, and the last to her temple, all bypassing her defence with ease.

Typhoid Mary was a relatively strong enforcer, at least on the street level, but that was only thanks to her psionic abilities. In physical combat, she was good, but not excellent, and she had not received any kind of physical enhancements.

The woman did not even realize she had been hit before she lost consciousness, her Three Treasures all receiving direct hits.

Letting her fall to the ground gracelessly, Mason turned to the henchmen, flashing them a grin. They looked terrified and regretful of their earlier decision.

Dispatching them quickly, Mason finally entered the office, where both Daredevil and Iron Fist were peering through the window.

”So, found anything interesting?”

”Yes. I don’t want to fight you.”

Mason rolled his eyes at Danny’s remark, turning to the more serious Daredevil, who explained, ”By the looks of it, there’s not much that could be used against Fisk in court. Maybe some by association, but to take down someone like Fisk, you need something big, something that can’t be defended.”

Mason felt the urge to tease him about his doubts on justice, before remembering he was not supposed to know Daredevil was Matt Murdock, so he asked instead, ”Uploading it online should still annoy him. Is there anything we can use?”

Danny, who was still staring outside, replied, ”We can use the information in there to easily deduce other locations for Fisk’s operations… but before that, you’ll probably want to check this out.”

Mason frowned, extending his Divine Sense outward. He instantly felt it. A psychic storm was gathering outside, rapidly gaining in intensity. But when it felt like it was about to explode, it imploded instead, rapidly converging on itself.

As the psychic storm retreated onto itself, it did not calm down, remaining just as volatile as it concentrated back inside Typhoid Mary. The normal mind, or Spirit, was supposed to remain entirely contained within someone, but Mary had entered a strange state where her Spirit randomly erupted, small tendrils exploding out of his body like lightning strikes, forming whips of fire in the outside world.

And Typhoid Mary herself was changed as well. She was no longer lying unconscious on the ground, levitating herself off the ground with her telekinesis. Her hair turned a shade deeper red, taking the color of blood as it settled behind her, straight.

In Mason’s honest opinion, she looked more beautiful than before, somehow gaining both an ethereal yet savage aura. But she also looked much more murderous than before.

His interest piqued, Mason walked out of the office, and Mary’s gaze immediately zeroed in on him. At the same time, on the ground, one of the henchmen vacillated between consciousness and unconsciousness when he spotted Mary’s new form and exclaimed, ”Bloody Mary is out!”

Typhoid Mary, turned Bloody Mary, snarled in the henchman’s direction, and with a single tilt of her head showered the man in flames. They felt hotter than before, and even though they did not last any longer than the ones from before, they burned the henchman to a crisp, nearly instantly killing him.

Mason was about to make a comment when Bloody Mary snarled, ”Your end won’t be so swift, Solis. I am going to enjoy painting with your blood.”

As she said that, what remained of the limo behind her was lifted off the ground, all the metal stripped and shaped into armor around her.