Act 18: Ball to the Wall

--- Joshua ---

On paper the idea of using his madness field on a super bouncy ball and a pair of brick walls to practice his dodging was an ingenious plan. Right up until he realized that while his field had no problem injuring him when he tried to push it too far, it apparently had a failsafe of some kind to prevent him from using it to actively harm himself.

Sure his madness field greatly increased the number of bounces he could get out of said ball, but that didn’t mean much when the ball would always curve around him.

“I probably should’ve expected my powers to come with some sort of secondary safety power situation.” He sighed, running a hand down his face. “I mean, why else is everyone immune to damage from their own powers?”

Not willing to give up on his (brilliant) plan just yet he decided to try pushing his power a bit harder. Namely by seeing if he could break through his safety restrictions with the aid of a Malice vial and that sweet sadistic symphony of sound.

Cracking his neck as his foot began to tap along to the beat, he picked up his bouncy ball before spinning it atop his index finger as he contemplated the best way to get the little ball to hit him.

“Hmm, well if my power doesn’t want to hit me…” He tossed the ball into the air before catching it and throwing it at the wall as hard as he could while flexing his madness field.

Once more the ball refused to hit him even if it was bouncing even more chaotically around the little alley he was in. At least until he simply stepped into the ball’s path.

Rather than bouncing off of him the ball fell flatly to the floor, and he could feel something just behind the swing in his head glaring at him, almost as if his power itself was annoyed with him.

“Ouchie…” He whimpered, before cackling madly.

Grinning madly, he picked the ball up before once more chucking it at the wall, where if he wasn’t mistaken it began to bounce even more wildly than before.

Eyeing the bouncing ball for a moment, he ducked to the side stepping into the ball’s path so that-

A rat leapt out of a nearby dumpster and snatched the ball out of the air.

(The fuck?!) He blinked watching the rat take the ball and scurry through a nearby sewer drain and thus far out of his reach.

After staring at the drain for a few minutes, he narrowed his eyes and walked over to his backpack where he pulled out a second bouncy ball before dribbling it against the ground as he glared at the nearby wall.

Throwing the ball he watched as through an odd distortion of physics the ball slowly climbed its way up the alley walls until it was bouncing a good foot above his head, without going an inch higher. Something he just knew was meant to taunt him.

“So that’s how it’s going to be.” He nodded. “Got it.”

Turning towards the dumpster he took a running start before kicking off the wall and then the dumpster to gain the few feet of height necessary to swat the ball out of the air.

“Ha!” He cried hitting the ground. “In your face… Powers…”

Silence was his only response.

“You know, thinking about it… The fact that my powers are actively antagonizing me raises some disturbing implications…” He admitted to the ball in his hand. “Which is why I’m going to completely ignore them rather than having an existential crisis driven mental breakdown in a filthy back alley.”

Once more he threw the ball as hard as he could at the wall, as he once more pitted himself against his powers in a game of keep away with the bouncy ball. Slowly pushing himself to, and beyond the sizable amount of stamina given to him by his healing factor as he continued to perform feats of acrobatics and mobility to chase and swat the bouncing ball.

A feat that drastically grew in difficulty as his powers decided to take their game from the small alley and into a more complex maze of alleyways and side streets that made up the back roads of the city.

A smile split his face as he chased the bouncing ball, finding this challenge all the more thrilling, as he spent the entire afternoon pushing the limits of several of his different skills and abilities. Performing several feats of dexterity and agility that he just knew were going to be all the more impressive once he took them from a rehearsal and put them to practice on an actual.

Hell, he could already imagine himself being a badass as (he dodged the bullets of both cops and gangsters with a mad grin on his face as he basked in the awe of his adoring audience, witty banter already on the tip of his tongue as he struck a lavished pose.

“I am always up for a shooting boys, but I’ve noticed none of you seem to be able to get my good side.” Insert cocky smirk. “Which is truly impressive given how every side is my good side.”

The boys in black and blue both took exception to that.

“Le sigh.” He said dramatically, as he continued to avoid bullets left and right. “This is what I get for working with amateurs, never should’ve agreed to a photoshoot without Polly behind the camera.”)

He couldn’t help but smile at that fantasy, as he continued his game with himself. All the while knowing just how close he was to the day he finally (reminded the world just how much of a star I really am!)

Scene Consequences

A/N: Alright due to the fact that the actual experiment idea and all of the given training actions having a certain synergy, (as well as the fact that this crit) I’m going to go ahead and bend the rules a bit to give this consequence:

-Due to experiment synergy and using a Malice Vial gained 3XP to Rube Goldberg Field, Healing Factor, Mobility, and Enhance Acrobatics.

--Currently: Rube Goldberg Field Lv. 3 (3/8) and Healing Factor (4/8)

--*Power Level Up* Enhanced Acrobatics Lv. 2 (0/6)

--*Skill Level Up* Mobility Lv. 3 (0/8)

--Malicious Crit: +1 Malicious Madness.