Chapter 16 - Improvements

Tyler Riddle

7:30 a.m.

I woke up well rested even though I only got five hours of sleep. Nia was sprawled across my torso with a big grin on her face while she slept. 

"Hey Nia, wake up. We have to move today." I say, nudging her.

"Hmmmm...only if you give me a good morning kiss." She mumbles.

"You can have all the kisses you want once we're done moving. Now come on, before I have to tickle you."

"No tickling! You know I can hardly control myself when you tickle me." She says with a pout, as she slowly gets off me. 

Once up, Nia heads to her room to start packing. We don't have a lot to pack since we just moved from our old home, so it only takes a little over two hours to move all of our stuff to the only four bedroom apartment in the building. Our parents tried renting it out, but not many pleasant people in Harlem can afford it.

After we finished with that, I had Nia finish cleaning our smell out of Matt's studio and I left her with the task of choosing the furniture for the new place. I have a different job. 

While I may have my parent's apartment complex to give passive income, it isn't enough. I need massive amounts of money and influence to achieve my plans, so I'm starting a company. Everyone on Earth is either working on basic stuff, like Tony with his current weapons program, or they're trying really hard stuff like harnessing infinity stones or making stable cold fusion. Nobody seems interested in the seemingly basic things like cheap nanomaterials or the massive amount of energy solutions that could stabilize or reverse climate change. Thanos and Galactus may be coming soon, but mother nature isn't too far behind.

I plan to use my genius and knowledge from my own world to sell products that will revolutionise society. The first step is to go to the courthouse and file paperwork to start my company. I can work on making the infrastructure for my company slowly while I try to figure out where I'm going to house my company. Even if I labeled it as a sole proprietorship, the filing for all the different licenses I need will take weeks. 

=÷=

A few hours later….

Dropping onto the couch at Matt's place, I take out my phone to check the news. The headline on the New York Times read: "Billionaire Tony Stark Goes Missing In Afghanistan!" Whelp, it looks like Tony is in a bit of a pickle, but I'm not going to go save him, at least not yet. I'll arrive in time enough to save Dr. Ho Yinsen. 

Now that I think about it, I have a lot going on. School has been taking a lot of time and it's no longer necessary for me. It never had a practical purpose, and it has lost its appeal in the socializing department as well. While many of the highschoolers' issues are important to them, on a grander scale, they are ultimately meaningless. I have a girlfriend and three people my age to socialize with. That is more than enough for now. But Nia still needs to go. She needs to develop real relationships.  I'll sign up to get my GED to appease the powers that be and then I can work full time in my plans. 

My most immediate goal right now is to get stronger. I can make a few improvements to my suit and the staff, and I can create a CRISPR virus to alter my genome and give me access to even more powers. The gamma gene could be very powerful, but with my complex ray of emotions and unique psyche...I think it's best if I stay away from that since I won't be able to predict what I might get. That leaves the mutant gene. A mutant's power is usually intertwined with their psychology, but that power often has connotations that surpass the physical realm, so it could theoretically intertwine with my current abilities, but I'm unsure. Regardless, it's the option with the least risk among the ones available to me.

Deciding to turn myself into a mutant, I cross the hallway to me and Nia's empty excuse of an apartment. Nia is sitting on the floor, ordering furniture.

"Hey Nia, which room is mine?"

"OUR bedroom is the master upstairs, past the loft."

"Our??....forget it. Is there someplace I can use for the next couple of hours? I need some privacy."

"You can use one of the other bedrooms as an office if you have to." She tells me, clearly not liking the idea of me having my own privacy."Oh, do you like the color palet I choose?!" She eagerly shows me a kitchen render made of black and browns with red accents. 

"Yes Nia, it looks wonderful. Just be sure to tell when the furniture is supposed to arrive. I'll be using this room. Don't bother me for the next couple of hours please." I say, before entering one of the bedrooms on the lower floor and closing the door."

I spend quite a while developing the CRISPR virus, as I am attempting to add an entirely new gene to my 23rd chromosome. I absorbed the process for a little bit to make sure the virus is doing its job and multiplying, since I was worried that it might just get absorbed. My body's natural processes haven't completely stopped yet, but they are definitely slowing down. The issue of eating and drinking has become mostly unnecessary long ago. I've only needed to consume vitamin supplements occasionally and what I do eat doesn't actually go into my body, it just gets absorbed like if I was doing it with my hands.

The mutation process should take at least a day to alter every cell in my body, then I'll have to activate the genes. It shouldn't be too hard, it just needs lots of stress, and I have no shortage of stressful things to think about. 

That leaves me with thinking about how I should improve my equipment. Namely, my suit and my staff. While a faceless, black void has a certain intimidation factor, so does a black void anywhere on the body. Not to mention that the public can't relate with or empathize with a faceless figure. Keeping my identity from all my future enemies will be nigh impossible, so a full mask is unnecessary. I think I'll go with a lower half mask like Bucky Barnes. It will at least allow Nia, Peter, and Gwen to finish school, and me to finish setting up my company. 

The suit itself needs improvements. Rubber isn't exactly the best option for a shock absorber. Armor plating would be much better. I can set many small plates of palladium micro glass into a weave of carbon nanotubes so that I can keep flexibility. The alloy is a complex arrangement of metals that is technically a glass, but it doesn't shatter. I didn't choose the alloy before since I didn't have the energy reserves to make a suit out of it. Flight is also a must, mostly for transportation purposes. I can use two strips of micro thrusters along my back to provide the thrust. I won't need fuel, since I can create my own my own electricity can serve as egnition. Not exactly dexterous enough to fight people who can actually fly, but I'd rather have this than have even more thrusters to deal with all over my body like Tony and his Iron-Man suit.

My staff needs an upgrade to it's materials and function. It needs to be more than just a mode of transport, it needs to double as a weapon. An array of transformer circuits will allow me to shoot arcs of electricity at greater distances and change the voltage to allow for greater or lesser lethality. It may seem like a rip off of Thor and his hammer, but at least my allies can pick it up and use it to bash my enemies across the head. I could make the center of the staff house a long and thin railgun, allowing me to make my own bullets on the fly and shoot them long distances when I need to. Sometimes physical attacks can be more useful than energy ones. The glider function can just be discarded since I've chosen a better form of flight and the extra space saved can be used for a folding blade that changes the staff into a spear. It should only take about a minute to recreate if I need to.

That really only leaves the coolness factor. What will be my emblem, my symbol? What will the masses instantly identify me by? The VantaBlack is interesting and foreboding, not cool. Maybe I should go with something personal? I got it. I'll put the Forerunner Mantle from Halo on my back, between my shoulder blades. And I'll put another three smaller Forerunner symbols below, following my spine. I can put a small Y symbol in the middle of my chest. And maybe some lines contouring some of my muscles, all in a silvery white color to contrast the VantaBlack. 

I continue working on my designs and actually implementing them for the next couple of hours until it's time for my sparring session with Matt.

=÷=