Chapter 21 - Run-in with the law

Tyler Riddle

Our surprise visitors just left. The whole encounter was pretty exhausting. I had to make myself appear both strong and trustworthy. In all actuality, I'd probably have trouble feeling with anyone except Magneto. He was physically weak and he isn't accustomed to hand to hand combat. I may have many abilities, but a couple days of training from Matt isn't making me a conditioned fighter. I just need a quick break before I interact with our other visitor.

"Hey Nia."

"Hmmm?"

"Why are you wearing so much red?"

"It's Valentine's Month." No, no, that's not how it works.

"When does the furniture and paint get here?"

"The day before Valentine's Day, I was thinking we could turn it into a project together and, you know, get messy fixing up the place." Her heart skipped a beat.

"Sure that sounds nice."

"Perfect." She says, turning her body to face me. She snuggles herself into my chest, taking slow, deep breaths, as if she was about to fall asleep. I comb her slightly unruly hair.

"Hey Nia, I have another guest coming over. Why don't you rest a little. I'll be right back."

"A woman?"

"It should be a grown man."

"Hmmm...okay. Come back soon."

I walk/crawl out the fort and pop my head out the door way, still on the floor. I looked down the hallway, and there was Samuel L.- I mean Nick Fury in the flesh, staring out the window, his back slightly turned to me, but I can still see his face.

"I've been expecting you." I said in a slightly evil voice, playing off the trope more than anything else.

"You've drawn a lot of attention to yourself Mr. Riddle." He said, still turned to the window.

"Whatever do you mean? I've done nothing wrong."

"Now two rival groups of highly dangerous mutants entering into one apartment on the outskirts of the hood is suspicious. But them all leaving the same place peacefully. There may not be a law against it, but there should be. I can at least arrest you for harboring an international fugitive." Fury said, turning around to face me. "What the fuck are you doing?"

"Oh me? I'm not doing nothing. I have no clue what you're talking about " I pull myself out into the hallway, still on the ground and start to walk on the wall toward him. My shoulder still grazing the ground. 

"Are you trying to be creepy?"

"You trying to be a pirate?" Ok ask back, referring to his eye patch. "Can you see in the dark if you take it off?" I reach the end of the halway and I transition to an upright position seamlessly. I continue walking over to him.

"No, but I can scare the shit of punks. It got torn to shreds a long while back." He said, raising the eye patch to reveal a sunken hollow that skin had grown over.

"Cool. So what are you here for? What gets me the honor of seeing the legendary Nick Fury in the flesh?"

"I want to know what you stole from Oscorp Labs, why, and most importantly how you did it without anyone noticing."

"Are you talking about that fake fire at Oscorp Labs. I didn't steal anything. I was busy running out of the building trying to save my life. Kool-Aid?" I turn my back to him, then I turn back with a pitcher of Kool-Aid and a glass.

"You can't deny it. I know it was you. What are you planning?" No? More for me then. I pour myself a glass, but once it gets full, I keep pouring. The pitcher never emptying and the glass never overflows, only liquid childhood flows.

"Do you have any evidence?"

"In the business I work in, I don't need evidence."

"Well regardless, I didn't do it." Deny, Deny, Deny. "But if I did do it, I would've done it because Norman Osborn is a ruthless Billionaire who will stop at nothing to achieve his goals, and while I have no hatred to his son Harry or the Osborn line, anything I could do that could benefit myself or ruin Norman Osborn's plans would bring joy to my hollow soul. The events at Oscorp would have likely done both, seeing as the stolen objects probably were unregistered biological experiments that theoretically give a human spider-like abilities." 

"Maybe."

"Right."

"You got five seconds before I decide that your pretty boy face looks better with lead."

"Fine, fine. I'm not trying to make S.H.I.E.L.D my enemy, but just so you know I'm not scared of you either."

"Go on."

"I made a couple of mini EMPs and hid them in my shoes. That's how I cleared out the cameras. The smoke bombs were simple enough that I could make them on the spot. Now what do you want from me? You didn't come here for a confession. I know you're way too busy for that."

"I want to know what you want. I can't have unknown variables around. If you're a threat, then you need to be neutralized. If you're a potential asset, then I need to know how."

"I want to help myself and the ones around me. Most times that might involve helping you."

"Most?"

"Stop looking for the Darkhold. Stop looking for the Monolith. They are objects that need to be destroyed. They are too powerful to fall in the wrong hands, and there are many wrong hands in S.H.I.E.L.D. Hydra never went away, it just hid."

"You think I don't know. I know at least one of my bosses is in league with them and who knows how many others. All the rest are corrupt in some fashion. But I need the funding to do the work that needs to be done. You have any other heads up that I might need, or are you done being all mysterious?"

"No that's really it. Oh, can I have Cap's shield?"

"Not a chance. Stay out of trouble. You make a big enough mess, I won't be cleaning up after you. I'll just have someone clean your brains off the concrete."

"That'll be one big mess."

"Smart-ass." He says, heading out the door.

"See you later Grandpa Fury. Try not to shatter a hip while saving the world." I cheer, making him slam the door on his way out.Not very spy-like if you ask me.

That went a lot better than expected. I may have acted a little mischievous, but it's better if he views me as a child in some fashion. I don't really need them, after all S.H.I.E.L.D is bound to fall apart at some point or another. The only thing I really want from them is a sample from Captain America's shield. Hopefully it's like the comics and is made from Adamantine, the metal of the gods. It's the superior version of Adamantium, which is what makes Logan's new skeleton. If Cap's shield is instead made of a Vibranium alloy like the movies, then I'll have to get a sample from literal gods. Asgard would be the safest and easiest source, but that's still part of a power league that I'm not sure I can mess with just yet. 

Well, whatever. It's something to worry about in the future. I can enhance my armor with Adamantium now. It's a metallic glass alloy similar to what I currently use, except it uses a lot of bismuth, it seems to form some sort of magnetic superstructure that functions as a solid unless it's in the presence of strong magnetic forces and excessive amounts of heat. I imagine that Adamantine would be similar, but it must require some sort of magical aspect to it.

I could try replacing my skeleton with Adamantium, but I would have to do it with my weird substance granted by my mutant ability. I don't have Logan's healing factor, so my bones need to act just like real bones. Man, I need to come up with name's form my abilities. It gets tedious when trying to communicate. My original ability comes from whatever lies beyond the Omniverse. The Omniverse only houses Multiverses or Universes that were created by the original life forms, mine simply had math as it's sole creator. It should be similar to the beyond-realm that houses the Beyonders. Well the name 'Exterus Force' sounds good. It's not very pompous. Exterus is simply a Latin root for foreign, outside, strange, which I think is pretty fitting. And since the substance from my mutant ability is linked to the Exterus Force, I'll call it Exterium.

I've tried messing around with the Exterus Force. I can absorb pretty much anything. Energy, matter, space, whatever. What seems to be my limitation is the rate at which I can absorb things. I can absorb light no problem, but not as fast as it continuously hits my skin. Anything moving faster than a fly won't get absorbed right away. Potential Energy just seems to be easier for me than Kinetic Energy, at least for the moment. My rate of absorption is improving with my use of it. Maybe one day I can absorb energy blasts and bullets.

I have so many things to do, but I can't do any of them if I have to stop bad guys left and right. So I have to make sure others can do that for me. Peter and Cindy can take care of most problems along with Matt. Getting Magneto off his high horse can prevent maybe sixty or seventy percent of the X-Men's problems, and if I can get him to help them out then that's a whole different ball game. I haven't fixed him yet though. I can't do that, he'll need family that will always be around him. I can only nudge him. 

Well, my biggest thing right now is money. I need to secure a place for the production of my products, but land is so expensive in New York. No bank will give me a loan of the size I need, and I can't go around selling priceless jewelry. But maybe I can smooge a few loans from people I know. Speaking of people I know, I need to get those indestructible phones made as soon as possible. 

It only took two hours to make fifty phones. The real beauty in their design isn't the shell composed of pure Adamantium, but the graphene supercapacitor that powered the whole thing along with the nano-scale electronic components. Each one was a supercomputer in it's own right. Phones aren't easy to use for a hero though, so to go along with those, I also made a flexible watch that was more like a sleeve, two earpieces that projected sound, but would still let sound from the outside, and two contact lenses that showed limited graphics. The phones were the real powerhouses, but each component could work on it's own, just in a slightly limited capacity. I only had to design one set before it was just copy and pasting. What took the most time was coding everything. It would've taken weeks if I had to write it from scratch, but it's a code I wrote back in my old world. It's unhackable because it simply works differently than other code languages. It reduces speed, but that's not a problem when you have such amazing processors. A single white horizontal line decorated the onyx equipment. Each one had natural, wavy, flowing patterns that made it look both futuristic and natural looking. It will work in almost any environment even if it gets completely filled with water or acid.

Other design aspects include power generating materials that will refill the capacitor using ambient heat, light, or kinetic force. I doubt you could refill it 100 percent, but 50 percent be viable in almost any circumstance I can think of.

Now I just have to give these out and—

"Brother! You said you would be done real soon. It's been hours!" Nia stormed out of our room, and stamped her way over me.

"Yeah sorry about that Nia. I have a lot on my plate, and these really needed to be made ASAP. One of these sets is yours. Here." I apologized, handing her a set of the equipment.

"Really? It's so cool, all these swirls and– No! You're not distracting me with fancy gifts. You didn't sleep at all with me last night. I can tell because I feel empty inside." But you were fine without that before.

"Okay, let's go to bed then. I really am tired, Yaaahhhh!!" I let out a yawn and submitted to Nia's antics and my own tiredness. I may be needing less sleep, but I still need some.

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