A mass of thick discolored viscous fluid rested on the sands of Mars, slowly bubbling and constantly shifting without pause. It radiated a deep blue, yet clear hue. As the shade of the fluid started to shift between white, green, and red, occasionally a mixture of all three, it finally halted at a lighter more brown shade. A secondary, purple color spawned at its center causing the two to intermix in an incoherent swirl that gently rose from the sand.
The viscous fluid soon began to writhe and expand abruptly, slowly spiraling out into the unstable foundation of a humanoid figure. Bones began to form and grow out of the foundation into a heavily reinforced skeletal structure with an absurd level of density. A thin membrane slowly formed over it covering the white bones. Next, the tissue began to form as veins and arteries materialized in many intricate patterns to soon fulfill their purpose. Graphene-like muscle fibers coiled and compressed into threads of muscles and spread through the entire foundation.
Individually, organs and glands soon formed, followed by an array of hypersensitive yet controlled nerves and all other sensory networks within the body, with the addition of a few others. Self-sufficient blood cells began to fill the veins and spread throughout the body. Reaching the final stage, a near-impenetrable layer of highly flexible skin slowly began to form over the framework of the body, covering every inch.
As the finishing touch, long platinum-colored hair quickly grew from their distinct areas as a massive burst of heat permeated the area around, crystallizing the sand in an instant. The form was complete, descending to the crystalized ground below. The deep blue glow that was once present faded into the figure as it stood.
The figure slowly began to open its pupil-less eyes, lacking any color than the purple hue that held unwavering strength within them. The figure looked down at the floor, using it as a mirror to witness its new form.
"This is far beyond what I was expecting… Way more painful than my volcano stunt."
Looking at his reflection in the crystalized sand, Spencer immediately noticed that his hair was much longer than before, reaching down to the middle of his back. His eyes have once again changed as well.
Standing up, he also noticed that his skin color had a minor adjustment, but it was nothing to worry about.
Taking a few minutes to adjust to his entirely new body, Spencer felt relatively normal, except for the absurd multiplier in his condition and the fact that memories of the creatures that he absorbed up to this point had become increasingly vivid. If not for his increased sense of self, he felt as if he would lose who he was in the sea of memories.
Brushing it off, Spencer searched the sea for the memories of the two Martians, specifically using them as a medium to access the abilities he gained from them. Finding what he was looking for not long after, he soon realized that to make proper use of the abilities belonging to the Martian race, he would have to maintain a heightened state of concentration while they are active.
"That's going to be a task in itself. They make it look so easy when they do it! Eh, anyway, first things first…"
Sighing to himself, Spencer looked down at his reflection, getting a full first-class view of his nakedness. Though he was proud, he didn't want to walk around full flash anymore. Using his newly completed shapeshifting ability, his body changed, donning a new tight-fitting black stretchy garment, somewhat similar to the Black Superman outfit from one of his favorite comics.
"Gosh darn, I look awesome!"
Seeing his changes take place just as he wanted, Spencer went on to test out the other gifts that he received. Analyzing every detail of the Martians' memories and personally testing the abilities firsthand, he quickly grew adept at using them without much strain, size and shape alteration, organic constructs, even appearance alteration became easier for him as he did a few impersonations in his spare time. Out of unjust curiosity, he also played around with changing his gender, if only for a short time.
"I should get this over with before it affects me later."
Spencer began to float and rest in a lotus position
Floating from the ground, he got into the lotus position and promptly clearing his mind, he began to sink into his subconscious. He descended into the core of his abilities, delving into his ever-growing pit of DNA.
Within the borders of his mind, Spencer could sense the various orbs of concentrated essence floating inside of his core. Scanning through the bundle, Spencer's eyes halted on a specific pool of essence that was expressing itself strongly above the others, dispensing a white light over all the others. Floating towards the orb of, Spencer held it in his hand and began to focus a small amount of inner energy into it.
The orb of essence began to grow brighter and brighter until the color soon began to change to a deeper orange fiery hue, as he soon began to push a larger amount of his inner energy towards the orb.
Coming to the outside world, Spencer's body no longer looked the same as before, his appearance at the moment quickly morphed and changed into that of nothing less of a full martian, except for the uncanny orange skin and flames emanating from his figure.
The orb refused to advance any further and remained as it was as if a piece of the sequence was somehow missing. Not knowing what it was, Spencer simply released the orb and looked at the large sea of essence within his core. Since he had the chance, he decided to ultimately combine his new traits with the old and enhance them all at once.
Spencer mentally commanded for the orbs to surround his body in the form of a spiral grid. He then began to meld the many different orbs together in rapid succession, forming a bigger and bigger sphere of concentrated essence. The orb grew to massive proportions once all of the orbs within the space had melded together, all except the orange fiery orb.
Floating to the center of the space, Spencer formed a ball of inner energy within his palm and continued to fuel it with larger concentrations to make the union more powerful. Condensing the ball to the size of a marble, Spencer reached out to place it within the sphere.
"Here comes the hard part…"
Infusing his inner energy with the essence sphere, it had an immediate response on contact with the ball of inner energy. The sphere began to warp and shift as the structure began to deform and struggle to maintain itself. Spencer placed himself in a state of heightened concentration and began to focus on regulating the Sphere and prevent it from collapsing.
After some time the Sphere began to build resistance to Spencer's attempts and continued to go out of control.
"Fuck!"
As a last effort, Spencer began to compress the massive sphere into a smaller form to keep it all from falling apart and resetting all of his progress. This seemed to work as the sphere began to calm down and stabilize, or that's what was thought, the Spere imploded and abruptly expanded, launching Spencer out of the subconscious mindscape and forcing him back into reality.
Opening his eyes vigorously, Spencer held his head as his body reverted to its human state, and the flames enveloping his body dissipated into nothing.
"Heh, should have seen that one coming…" He frowned.
Rubbing his head, Spencer took to his feet and did a quick recap.
"I managed to enhance the Martian essence within my body, however, it seems as if the sequence is incomplete. I might have to find some Greens to see what I can learn from them… They may have the remaining sequence this requires."
Clapping his hands together and generating a small gust of wind, Spencer set his second plan into motion. Sending out a psionic pulse, a fusion of his energy pulse, and his new martian psionic abilities, Spencer was enlightened by how much he was missing. Scattered across the planet's surface were numerous signals that reverberated in his brain. He could now sense them, along with their standing.
A variety of the signals appeared calm and tranquil, akin to peaceful philosophers, the others were savage and barbaric, but this awareness was not one-sided, he could feel that they could sense him as well.
He came to notice that a large majority of the more peaceful race were clumped together in a bundle, making his next waypoint obvious. Elegantly hovering into the atmosphere, Spencer flew in the direction of the signals hoping to get more from his experience on Mars.
A smile creeping on his face, Spencer was very excited about what could be in store for him next.
