Marvel: The Social Link System

Duncan had just come out of the school's shower room with his sports bag. He felt much better after a 10-minute shower, albeit he prefers to shower in his own bathroom rather than the school's, which is filthy.

He went casually through the school's nearly empty and peaceful corridor. He checked the time and saw that it was now around 6 p.m.

Duncan could only whistle at the sight; after this, he was meant to meet Peter and then head to Gwen. It was going to be a long day today.

Suddenly, the tune of Michael Jackson's song "Smooth Criminal" resonated around the corridor from Duncan's phone. It was his ringtone, and he was being called.

He retrieved his phone from his bag to see who was calling.

It was Gwen.

The call was soon accepted by the boy, who was then connected to the blonde girl.

"Yeah?" Duncan replied.

"So when are you gonna come? It's 6 p.m. already "She stated unequivocally.

"Well, I'll probably be there around 7 or 8 p.m.." Duncan replied as he continued down the corridor. "But, I need to meet with Peter first."

"What? What do you mean? Duncan, it's already late."

"Well, Gwen, I'm a busy man, so you'll have to wait in line to gain my attention." Duncan remarked sarcastically.

"Haha, very funny." Duncan could almost hear the girl roll her eyes in her voice. "But seriously, my mom would probably tolerate you being here until 10."

"What about your dad?" Duncan inquired.

"My mom's the one wearing pants in this house." Gwen stated plainly.

"I'm not sure whether I should be concerned or relieved to hear that." Duncan murmured. "Anyway, the thing with Peter would probably take around 30 minutes. If I'm running late, do part of the work yourself. See ya."

"Bye."

Duncan abruptly ended the call before opening the corridor entrance to the outside.

He looked up at the overcast sky above him, anxious that it was about to rain, but he dismissed that thought for the time being.

—

In the darkness of the evening, Duncan entered an abandoned construction site. The area was quiet, but the boy could hear sirens and car noises coming from the streets. The place was dark, which was strange because Peter was supposed to be there.

"Peter?" Duncan called out.

No response.

Duncan took out his phone and turned on the light before looking for the boy he was scheduled to meet.

Duncan peered about for a few moments, but there was no sign of Peter.

The boy could only click his tongue in annoyance as he quickly tried to call Peter using his phone.

But then Duncan suddenly felt a tap on his shoulder, as if on instinct, the boy spun around and tried to slam his fist into the person who was touching him.

Duncan could see the man who had touched his shoulder ducking towards the ground and raising his hands as though surrendering.

"Wow, wow, wow! It's me! Peter!" the guy said in panic.

"Peter? Man, Jesus Christ." Duncan sighed as he assisted the boy in standing. "What's up with you wanting to meet me here? This place definitely looks like some kind of criminal lair."

"Well, I gotta show you something." Peter murmured. "And I can't do it in front of so many people, so..."

"Yeah, why this place?" Duncan complained but quickly relented. "Just... whatever... what do you want to talk about?  Let's just get this out of the way."

Peter nodded as he walked excitedly around the corner to a wrecked car. "All right, watch this."

Peter dove beneath the vehicle and raised it off the ground, as if it were a styrofoam car. The boy appeared to be struggling, but he was able to lift the car a few inches off the ground.

"What do you think!?" He struggled to keep going.

"Well, I'm not sure what to say. Impressive?"

Peter gave Duncan an odd look as he dropped the car to the ground, wobbling it slightly. He gazed at the boy with his hands on his hips. "Really? I just lifted a car off the ground, and all you said was 'Impressive'?"

"What do you want me to say?" Duncan let out a sigh. "Peter, you've seen Hulk running around; you see Thor flying around; it looks normal at this point."

"Yeah, but still, I'm the one who did it." Peter pointed it out. He then moved up to a neighboring wall and peered at Duncan. "And look at this."

He then used his newly gained power to climb the wall, becoming glued to it like a spider crawling on the ceiling. "You see this?!"

"Nice," Duncan said with a hum.

Peter couldn't believe his eyes. He groaned as he fell to the ground. "Seriously? 'Nice'?"

"Peter, what's the point of you showing it off to me?" Duncan inquired. "You want compliments? Then do it in the middle of the school, or break Flash's face or something."

"W-Well, no, I don't want compliments; I just—I don't know."

"You don't know?" Duncan was perplexed. "What does that mean?"

"I'm not sure what to do with this," he admitted. "What do you think I should do?"

"Why are you asking me?" Duncan stated. "It's not my thing, it's yours."

"You're not really helping right now, dude."

"Well, what do you want to hear?" Duncan inquired, laughing. "Do you want to go to the Avengers' headquarters and try out to be one of them? Or do you want to go to the military and be experimented on? Which one do you prefer?"

"N-No, not that." As he sat on a stack of logs, Peter mumbled. "You don't know how it feels, you know? I've always been me. Bullying on a daily basis, being labeled as a "nerd," being dubbed the "strange kid," "Puny Parker"... Now that I have these powers... I just— I don't know."

Duncan sighed when he saw the scene. He sat beside the boy, accompanying him in the darkness.

"Look, I'm not going to tell you what to do." Duncan stated. "It's your life at the end of the day. This "power" you wield is all yours, not mine. Do you want to join the football team? Then go ahead and do it. You want to go to the Avengers HQ and drop out of school? Then go ahead and do it."

"But it's not exactly fair, is it?"  Peter chuckled. "I'm pretty sure I'd crush their bones if I tackled them."

"Well, maybe if you could control your strength, you could do it; I don't know." Duncan shrugged. "The point is, Peter, you don't need my advice. You should think about it yourself, but remember, your actions will also have repercussions."

Peter just scoffed in amusement as he thought of something. "You think I could be one of those superheroes?"

Duncan hummed. "Well, to be honest, I don't really like superheroes that much. They create trouble more than they solve it."

Peter raised his brow. "What?"

"I mean, look at Tony Stark." Duncan pointed out. "That mandarin terrorist was kind of his fault; Stane was kind of his fault; Ultron was definitely his fault. I mean sure, he solved troubles too… But Sokovia and the people who died there won't just be back to normal if he just throws an absurd amount of money at them. A lot of problems that he solved were created by him in the first place."

"W-Well, when you put it like that..."

"Yeah, well, but it's not like we don't need them." Duncan continued as he stood up. "Anyway, I think I need to go; I promised Gwen I would meet her tonight."

"G-Gwen?" Peter stuttered. "I had no idea you were—"

"No, not like that." Duncan shook his head. "Assignment, Biology. I fucking despise Mr. Harrington; it's homecoming week, and he still assigns us homework."

"R-Right..."

"Oh, right, Gwen asked MJ to be my date to the homecoming dance." Duncan said casually, making Peter's eyes widen. "I refused, of course, but watch out for that."

"W-Wait what?"

"Okay… I'm late already." Duncan said as he looked at the tons of missed calls from Gwen. "See you tomorrow, Peter."

"W-Wait what do you mean? What did you say to MJ?!" Peter said anxiously as Duncan walked away from him.

"Don't worry, buddy, I didn't say anything." Duncan raised his hands as if he were saying that he was innocent.

"Duncan!" Peter called once again.

The boy just turned around, and he raised his brow towards Peter.

"Thanks," said Peter. "I'll think about what I'm going to do with this."

With the sound of chains breaking in his head as a sign of ranking up, Duncan just nodded at Peter's words.

"Right... oh yeah, the sandwich." Duncan suddenly remembered.

"What? What sandwich?"

Duncan just sighed. "You promised to buy me one!"

—

It was now 7 p.m. in the evening. Duncan was walking through the quiet streets of New York as he was eating his sandwich that he got from Peter. There was nobody around, only parked cars and some trash could be seen around the boy.

"Pretty good…" Duncan murmured to himself, chewing at the sandwich.

Suddenly, as he was about to cross a street, a car came rushing to a stop just right in front of him. It was a black Mercedes car, and he could see three men inside.

Duncan just raised his eyebrow at the sight, and soon enough, the three men inside got out of the car and grabbed him in the arms, before dragging him inside the car.

"The fuck is this?" the boy questioned as they did so. "Hey, my sandwich!"

"Shut up kid." one of the men then practically threw him to the passenger side of the car. He tied Duncan's hand, and he noticed that the boy didn't do anything to fight it.

"Who're you guys?" Duncan asked calmly. The men started their car again, and blasted off through the streets.

They didn't answer Duncan's question.

"You know, I asked you guys a question." Duncan continued.

The man beside Duncan suddenly punched him in the face, annoyed by his words. The guy then took out some tape, and plastered Duncan's mouth.

"Shut up." the man said. "Or I'll kill you right here."

Duncan just sighed at the man's words. The boy just shook his head, and he didn't say anything at all.

The ride was practically quiet. Duncan could see that the road that they took was quite an empty one, and the boy could feel like it was something that he could exploit. An empty road.

When the two men besides him weren't looking, the boy slowly took something from his pocket. It was a sling ring, he quietly wore it using his tied up hand, and slowly made a circling motion.

In an instant, a big portal opened in front of the car.

The driver's eyes widened as they passed the portal, only to be headed straight into a shipping container. "What the fuc—"

The car slammed against said container, wrecking the car from the front. Duncan slammed his head to what's in front of him, making his forehead bruise a little.

The boy groaned as he could see the guys around him were staggered, trying to keep their bearing, as their heads were slammed against the driver seat and the front passenger seat respectively.

The boy took this opportunity to crawl out of the car, shaking his head to shake off the dizziness.

"Not my smartest decision…" Duncan groaned. He looked at his tied up hands, and simply broke it off with his strength.

He cleaned his outfit first, before turning around. Inside that car, he could feel the aura of death seeping out of the driver, a sign that the guy's probably dead. The other two however are still alive.

Duncan took a deep breath. He walked towards the car as blazing blue fire covered his body, evaporating the blood that stained his shirt. Once the fire had covered his entire body, it had turned his clothing to that of a monk robe that was wearing a sinister mask, with a leather belt around his waist.

"Come, Kalyptos," he whispered.

A dazzling blue fire once again appeared behind the masked man, and it morphed into the shape of a sinister angel that was holding a menacing red book.

"U-Ugh…" the man inside the car groaned as he recovered from the crash. When he looked outside, he saw something that he would probably never forget in his entire life. "W-What—"

Not a second later, a small violet sphere penetrated his head, along with the guy that was still recovering, killing them instantly. Their brain dripped alongside their blood to the car, and they died not knowing what killed them.

The angel behind Duncan flipped its book once again, and three faint lights appeared around him, traveling towards the dead men.

As soon as the faint white lights touched the three corpses, three gray and gloomy constructs of the dead men appeared near them, as if their souls were pulled from the afterlife.

"Finally, answer my question." Duncan said. "Who are you guys?"

A haunting voice came from one of the 'ghosts'.

"Fisk's… Men…"

"That guy again…" Duncan murmured to himself. "Why target me all of a sudden?"

"Distraction… for the cops…" said the ghost. "Fisk… wanted to kill both of you… to get rid of an annoyance… and frame it… on other crime bosses… fake evidence… in the car…"

Duncan could see from a distance that there were some gloves and guns inside the trunk of the wrecked car, but he didn't see any 'evidence' that could be used to frame other crime bosses.

"Wait, both of you?" Duncan frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Catherine Plagmann… is also… a target…"

Duncan's eyes widened. "Are there other assassins?."

"Just… us…"

Duncan hummed. "You mentioned distraction. Explain."

"We… don't know… but suspect… Fisk… trying… to distract… the FBI… from him… so he could… be more… free…" said the ghost. "When the two cops… were busted… Fisk… was put under more… surveillance… and we… had the FBI… on our asses… all the time…"

"Right…" Duncan murmured. "That fucking bastard… Fine…"

Duncan then walked towards the car, looking at the three corpses inside. The gray ghosts behind him quickly vanished into dust, leaving Duncan alone.

"Say hi to the lady for me." he said quietly. "I'll borrow your bodies for a bit."