Son Of Broken Things - Chapter 8 Superpowers And Rankings

After arriving home, Marco’s initiation ritual into the family was done. He swore the ‘Giuramento di Lealta’ and was accepted by Leo, who officially made him his right hand man.

The next morning he taught Marco some basic fighting stances and techniques from his experience when he was in the army back on his former earth, which could help to make full use of his ability in a fight. After asking Antonio to monitor Marco’s training and also impact some of his military combat technique to him, Leo went to his study to learn more about superpowers.

He had received new information on superpowers sourced by his uncle and was excited to check it out. He wanted to know if there were ways to improve one’s ability to the next rank or how to awaken powers in the first place.

After going through the information for a whole morning, Leo finally finished and had gained a better understanding on superpowers.

It was discovered that before the second world war, there appeared a very rare element in the environment which was slowly modifying and evolving the human body and the called it; Dark Matter. Its level of evolution was slow because it was very little and was hardly noticed at first until the first superhuman came to be. No one knew how it came to about, where it came from, or what it truly was as all research on dark matter turned up without results. This new element just appeared out of no where in the environment and gave birth to the first evolution of humans giving them powers.

Countries with foresight saw this as a chance to possess superior military might over all other countries, especially after dark matter mines were discovered; these were resource spots were there was high concentration of dark matter condensing overtime to form solid black energy which looked like rock, called black stones; these stones could be used to forcefully awaken an individuals dormant powers and also upgrade existing powers. These mines were sought out and claimed by various countries and organizations, but because of the low rate of success in the awakening and upgrading abilities and also the rarity of the mines, conflict broke out for control over more mines by the various countries and organizations leading to the bloody and brutal second world war.

After the war, all countries were affected with high death rates and low population. This led to the formation of the World Council, which involved the major world powers and some small powers. They passed laws regarding control on the dark matter mines and also against war between major powers of the world. They also enacted laws on the use of super powered civilians for war and for those who were able to discover any mines within a government controlled territory, were expected to pay a taxed percentage on the mine output to the government of that territory, and those outside the control of certain government territories were taxed by the World Council.

The cooperation between the major world powers in enforcing this laws help to deter all other powers or individuals from going against them. And although the policies on the ownership of dark matter mines were strictly adhered to by other and punishment enforced, there were still individual and organizations in the underworld who had private ownership on secret mines and performed illegal sales of black stones to the public for huge profits.

Reading through the information Leo was able to grab some of the history behind the dark matter, mines and stones and their importance to the growth of an underworld organization like the crime families. It would allow any one with constant supply of black stones to posses superior fighting power over others, but the mines and stones were just too scarce and the dark matter in the atmosphere was also too little to help. And due to the evolution of humans overtime, the human constitution was also changed bringing various level of dark matter physique, those with high grade physique can easily awaken and upgrade their abilities compared to those with low grade physiques and no physique at all who will never be able to awaken their abilities all their lives.

Ranking on the other hand was not as complex as the research on superpowers. They were simply levels of power giving for various abilities. Due to the fact that abilities could be upgraded to stronger levels, they could not be classified in the same group with the weaker ones, which brought about the system of ranking; with abilities being rated and ranging from rank 1- 5. 1- 4 being the awakening and manipulation of elements and modifications of the body such as; super strength, speed, hearing etc with dark matter energy called; Mana, absorbed and stored in the body, and rank 5 being the transcendence stage which is believed that one is able to master the laws patterning to his or her abilities and also be able to freely manipulate the mana in the environment. There has been no incident of someone breaking into this rank so must information on it is speculated. But it simply meant the more mana one is able to have the higher the individuals rank and power will be and when it reaches a certain point that individual will transcend to be like a god.

With what he had discovered there was a possibility for him to upgrade his ability to the next level and also those of the family members too. An interesting part about superpowers he discovered was that when one awakened or broke through the next rank, all information about the ability appears in the individuals memory which also could not really be explained by anyone.

He sighed while thinking about the impossibility of him getting his hands on a mine, but decided even if he couldn’t get control of his own mine he could gather enough money to buy black stones from underworld organizations which deal in trading them. One of such organizations he discovered was the Chapman corporation; which was a company owned and run by the English mining tycoons; the Chapman family. The company officially dealt in iron and mineral ores but the family also possessed illegal rights to a secret dark matter mine which, is excavated and black stones are processed into various grades; high, medium and low, to be auctioned in various cities around the world, one of such being Allabo, with its annual auction coming up in three months.

With three months as the deadline and the progress of the liquor project, Leo believed he should be able to make enough profits to fund his participation in the coming auction and maybe win a few stones for himself. All he really needed was to prepare accordingly and hope for success.

When he was finally done he could only sigh and slump back into his chair, it would seem his plans for developing a super powered army was not possible anymore. He then pulled out his antique pocket watch to check the time before heading out to the family shooting range to check up on Marco’s training. At the though of Marco, he quickly recalled that Marco was able to breakthrough to rank 2 without even being 20 years old yet, so it would seemed like Marco possesses a high grade physique which lets him breakthrough naturally overtime with years of accumulation.

………………….

When he arrived at the range Marco was practicing his shooting and it seemed he had a talent for it as most of his shots were within the eight and nine rings of the target, he didn’t get a ten but his result after a day of practice showed his talents well. He called Marcos over concluding his training for the day and invited him for lunch as they had family matters to settle soon.

During lunch Antonio informed him on the progress of his arrangements with the DA and it would seemed the negotiation succeeded and his friend was fully onboard with the deal, although he was asking for an exaggerated sum in return. Leo accepted as he would be able to make millions on the liquor project as compared to the talents coming his way. They agreed to start recruiting the individuals but they would slowly erase their records to prevent suspicions and leave no traces behind, so it was going to take sometime before Leo could get them.

Although the speed was a little too slow, Leo wasn’t bothered because the current situation was within his expectations. He simply informed Marco and Antonio to ready themselves after lunch, they would pay visits to the rogue gangs within Fanucci territory and give them two choices; submit or be eradicated. Most of the gangs were just thugs and delinquents anyway, so Leo felt it shouldn’t be much of a problem for his current force.

Immediately after lunch four cars left the Fanucci estate heading into the city marking the start of the Fanucci crusade to regain control of their territory and if possible reclaim lost ones.
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