Mark continued to back up. His back hit a piece of scrap metal as he looked forward in horror. The purple aura coming from Luna began to diminish as the ground around her was now still.  Mark pointed his index finger at Luna who was now completely different from before.

Luna's body had undergone a werewolf beast-like transformation as she was now a hairy monster and not the beautiful young girl she once was.

Luna exhaled from her now wolf-like nostrils as she opened up her now hairy arms. She pointed her sharp claws at Mark and told him to “Come at her without holding back!”

“Y-you're...Y-you're..!” Mark stuttered over his words as he continued to point at Luna.

“I know everyone is always a bit taken back at first by the look of this form so I wouldn’t expect you to act any differently-”

YOU’RE A FURRY!?!

Luna was cut off by Mark who shouted out the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard in her life. Mark put his hands on his head and crouched down to regain his thoughts. 

“I can't believe it, a cute girl like you turning into a furry does that make me a furry? Oh man, how am I going to explain this to my mom!”

Luna made a very comical yet angry expression. “CAN YOU STOP YAPPING AND FOCUS ON THE FIGHT YOU DOOFUS AND STOP CALLING ME CUTE! IS THIS CUTE!” She opened her mouth and let out a roar shaking some of the earth around her. “By the way what the heck is a furry anyway is that not just another word for an animal?”

“Uh. Just search it up on the Internet I won't lie to you. Anyways, how are you able to do that? What a freaky ability.”

“Hmph. You’re even more of a newbie to your powers than I thought. You don't even know about Awakenings, so I'm going to guess you don't have one either."

“Okay, can you spill it already? First the talk about Galaxy Energy or whatever it is. Now this talk about Awakening? I don't need to Awaken anything. I'm already awesome ya got me!” He said as he confidently pointed at himself with his thumb.

“Someone needs to humble you and that cocky attitude of yours. Listen if you’re able to beat me in this fight I’ll tell you everything you need to know about Galaxy Energy and Awakenings you got me?”

“Hmph. Beating you should be easy. It doesn't matter if you're a werewolf or not.” He said while his eyes turned green as he got into a running position and blitzed forward towards Luna.

“Way.” She intercepted Mark mid-way through his sprint and close-lined him into the dirt. “TOO SLOW!” Luna revealed her claws and began slashing at Mark who was now on the ground.

“Tch!” He began to try and block Luna’s attacks but couldn't help but get hit by a few. “HA!” He jumped back gaining distance on Luna as he looked at his arms. “Jeez your claws are sharp, you messed up my sleeves.”

“Trust me I wasn't aiming for your sleeves.” She said pointing to his arm.

“Huh?” Mark screamed out in pain as he held his left arm as it began to leak with blood from the various cuts he received. “Ngh...Crap that hurts..”

“If you thought I wouldn’t be able to damage you then you thought wrong. If you’re truly a hero shouldn’t you give it your all to stop me? Huh, Meteor Boy?” She said in a mocking tone

Mark clenched his teeth and put up his fists again while his blood dripped onto the ground. “You asked for this! TAKE THIS!” He jumped in the air and flung his arm forward launching about 4 slabs of rock toward Luna.

Luna took a deep breath and slashed through every single one of the slabs with her razor-sharp claws. “LUNAR CANNON!” She opened her mouth as wide as possible and fired a large red beam toward Mark.

Mark's eyes widened as he flung his hand up making an ice shield that barely protected him from Luna’s blast. “Huff…Huff. I see you got a signature move, huh well I got dozens of those so I'm not impressed.”

“Someone needs to give you a good smack on the head for being so cocky and I guess that person has to be me!” Luna got on all fours and howled as she ran towards Mark so fast that she turned into a blur.

Mark put up his guard but it was too late. Luna was already behind him. He turned around and shortly after yelled out in pain as he felt his body getting ripped to shreds.

In that split second Luna was able to deliver a flurry of slashes onto Mark's person that would split the average person clean in two. Mark fell to his knees as blood was leaking from his legs, arms, and chest. He tried to catch his breath as he heard Luna get ready to prepare for her next attack. 

Mark slowly turned around as Luna rushed at him. He instinctively jumped back in fear, accidentally spewing out a wave of fire from the soles of his feet. “Huff….Huff...Crap that was close, but still I can barely move.”

“Are you going to give up and tell me what I want to know or should I end this in this final attack?” She said as she pointed her claws toward Mark.

“You think you’re gonna make me give up that easily? A great hero like me would never give up.”

“Would you stop trying to gas yourself up more than you are? I'm guessing when you first got these powers you thought you could do some real good, but you're letting this new sense of power get to your head. If that's how you want to be a hero then you’re missing the point entirely. Heroes aren’t born, they have to be made, and someone like you who's weak not just mentally but physically can never dream of being a hero.”

“I don't know if it's because of your upbringing or just this new sense of overconfidence but you need a reality track right now.” Luna uttered.

Mark began to let out heavy breaths and held his head back. Luna’s words began to echo through his mind similar to the lecture the two robbers gave him. It seems recently people who he's just now meeting whether they’re bad or good have been giving him advice. Not necessarily to benefit themselves but just because Mark is utterly clueless about this new world he's stepped into.

First, the robbers poked fun at him for trying to play hero now Lunas telling him what it means to be one even after he “became” one a couple of days ago. Mark felt a sense of shame someone his age should never feel. He sighed and brung his head back down with his eyes back to black.

“Hm?” Luna looked at Mark as she noticed his energy levels dropping lower than before and not just because of his fatigue. “Is he giving up?” She thought.

“I’m. I’m sorry.” Luna was taken aback by Mark's words as he rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. “You’re not the first person this month to give me a speech like this and I'm not just talking about my parents. I’ve been pretty cocky, you're right.

“This is every 13-year-old boy's dream waking up one day with super flashy abilities and everything, but. This is real life and I’m taking it like a game. I’ve always been the weak, nerdy kid my whole life so getting powers like this and I got a chance to be something other than that. So a chance like this. It's just a lot to take in and I didn’t know how to act.”

“You…” Luna withheld her words until Mark finished. 

“I do wanna be a hero. Not just playing being a hero, not being a jerk either. I want to be a real hero. Hear me out real quick, let's change the rules of the match now. If I win you tell me about this Galaxy Energy stuff and help me learn how to be a hero? If you win I’ll tell you everything you wanna know about that night, deal?” 

Luna was taken aback for a moment as she noticed that Mark looked sort of cool for a moment. He wasn’t bluffing like the previous times during the fight but his words had actual meaning. 

Luna slowly regained her composure as she smirked and nodded her head accepting Mark's bet.

Mark said “Great.” with a confident smile as his eyes reinvigorated themselves and turned green again. “Let's end this “date”  on a good note then.”

Luna smirked and got into her fighting stance. “You’re not as dorky and idiotic as I thought. I give you one thing: you're good at admitting your flaws and mistakes but still. It won't be enough if you still can’t fully utilize your powers.”

Mark started to breathe hard while he held his chest as his heart began beating as fast as possible.  He closed his eyes and Luna's eyes widened in shock once more as she felt his energy level spike. Luna braced herself not moving an inch till Mark did.

Mark began to have an inner monologue with himself as he breathed hard while holding his chest. “Think. I’m already losing the fight and taking a bunch of damage. If I weren’t in that coma I would’ve gotten more time to learn how to control my powers better like everyone else can.”

“I was just barely able to scrape by in that fight with the two robbers thanks to my flight ability but even then. Luna and even those low-level robbers could use their powers creatively. I can't outsmart her or beat her in skill. My only remaining option is to.”

Mark began bouncing up and down in a repeated motion as Luna raised her eyebrow in confusion. Luna shook this off and readied herself for the fight to continue as Mark called out to her.

“Have you ever played fighting games before?” Mark said with a confident yet gleeful smile.

“Do I what?” Luna said in genuine confusion.

Mark cupped his hands together charging a flaming hot fireball between his palms and shot it out towards Luna. Luna evaded the attack with a cartwheel as Mark continued to lay on the assault. Luna sprinted towards Mark and reeled back her fist in preparation for a decisive blow.

“This one has a different name in the game so I had to rebrand it.” He clenched his fist as it sparked with fire.

METEOR FIST

Luna and Mark clashed fists as the ground underneath them began to give way. Mark slapped Luna's hand away with his other arm. Mark began quietly muttering to himself some words as Luna's refined ears were able to pick up on it. 

“Square. Triangle. Triangle. R1. Triangle. Square. R1. Square. Square. Square. R1!” Mark repeatedly said as Luna was beyond confused about what was happening.

In that split second of confusion, Mark began laying on combo after combo onto Luna as she couldn’t keep track of his movements. Well, it was more so that she had never seen this style of “fighting” before until today which was making her unable to track Mark.

Luna skidded back and charged up a beam in her mouth as Mark reeled his fist back. Luna thought Mark was preparing another Meteor Fist only to her surprise he used his ice abilities to freeze Luna's snout shut.  Luna held her jaw trying to break it free from the ice as the mouth blast went off and she was damaged from her attack.

The ice around her mouth shattered from the previous blast as she chuckled. “Clever. You were able to close the gap in skill with your weird technique”

“That technique right there is the hard work and dedication of playing fighting games for 3 years straight!”

“I don't know if I should give you credit for being able to remember game commands and transform them into real-life fighting and even creating an entirely new move as well. Or if I should call that dumb instead cause you based your fighting style off video games.”

“It might as well be a bit of both and trust me I’m not done yet I got one more surprise for you.” He said with a smile.

Mark began to hover in the air as Luna braced herself for what was to come. Mark flew towards Luna at mach speeds and kicked her high into the air, laying a series of punches and kicks onto her, sending her even higher. 

Luna grappled onto Mark's arm as they were now floating in midair. Luna snickered as she realized that neither Mark nor her could do anything in this position so she knew the fight would continue at ground level.

“Hmph. As I said, I got one more surprise. Sorry in advance for this. HYAAH!” Mark reeled his arm back that Luna was holding as she launched her even higher into the sky. "Let's see if this works and isn't just a feeling."

“Hmph. Your flight ability made things a bit touch and go but now you’re wide open!” Luna began to dive head first, opening her mouth and charging another beam within it. “IT'S OVER!”

Mark looked up towards Luna who was heading towards him at blinding speeds as he cupped his hands again seemingly about to do another fireball attack. The following result was something Mark hadn't shown prior as a ball of pure energy began to form in his palms.

“He’s able to manipulate energy like me!?!” Luna growled but this didn't stop her from preparing her attack as she was now only a couple of dozen feet away from Mark.

“Meteor..” He grits his teeth as his green eyes sparked brighter than before.

“Lunar.” She was closer to Mark than before as she opened her mouth wide.

BLAST!

CANNON!

The two energy beams ripped through the sky as they both met in the middle and collided with one another. Mark and Luna were trying their hardest to gain the upper hand on the other as they both yelled at the top of their lungs.  The beam struggle abruptly ended as Mark and Luna’s beams canceled each other causing an explosion and sending the two combatants flying back.

Luna was thrown back further into the air with bruises and cuts along her body from the explosion. “Crap.” Her body quickly reverted to her normal human state. “That last attack took a toll on my energy supply..” She said as she began to fall out of the sky zooming toward the ground.

HMPH!

Mark grunted as he used the remaining bit of his energy to jump into the air and catch Luna princess-style as skid on the ground. Mark was holding Luna up in the air as his body collapsed as she fell right on top of him. Luna sprung up and got a couple of feet away from Mark as he rubbed his head and apologized.

“Why did you do that?” Luna questioned Mark.

“Ugh..” He slowly stood up as his bones cracked and popped from his soreness. “Well I just thought that was a heroic thing to do, you know. Saving someone who looks like they need saving.”

"I'm still new to this whole thing though and once again I'm sorry. I was acting like a cocky jerk most of the time. I just feel different with these powers. My whole life I’ve been a nerdy kid and a bystander so these powers are like.”

“A blessing?” Luna said, interrupting Mark.

“Yeah. How’d you know I was gonna say that?”

“A group of people close to me told me the same thing.” Mark blinked in confusion as Luna rubbed her head. “Ah, it's nothing.”

“Oh okay so are we cool now?” Mark questioned/

“Ugh. I guess the fight did end in a tie so we both have to spill the beans. I should go first. You should sit down 'cause it's a long explanation.”

“Alright. Wait HAA!” He tried to manipulate the rocks under him although he was all out of energy as he chuckled in embarrassment. “I guess the ground works too.” He sat down as Luna did as well.

“Okay, I’m gonna tell you everything you need to know about these mysterious powers that have been popping up in you humans lately,” Luna said as she looked at Mark.

“Bet. Wait, what do you mean by you humans?”

“Shut up. That's a part of the story too so let's hurry up and start okay?”

“Alright. I'm listening, go ahead.”

“Here you go. The complete explanation about Galaxy Energy,” Luna said with a sigh.