NOVEL NEXT Chapter 27: Growing Pain
Chapter 27: Growing Pain
S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ, New York
“Are we sure it was them?” the dark-skinned spymaster questioned in a surly voice. Holographic screens surrounded the operatives, displaying data streams from cellular devices and overhead surveillance from numerous locations on a level that most people were unaware of.
Maria Hill stood to the left of Fury; she pinched her tablet, a device a decade above what could be acquired by most people, and flung another image onto the holographic monitors. “The satellite task to track the X-men coming and going did experience some interference,” she pulled up an additional report from state-of-the-art Doppler radar.
Fury grunted. “By strange, you mean impossible weather patterns that appeared out of nowhere.”
“Yes, heavy clouds appeared to be moving and accumulating across along the Eastern seaboard.”
“Safe to say they’re aware of our satellite that had been monitoring them.”
“Not too surprising, we’re aware of an extremely intelligent mutant, Dr. Hank McCoy; locating our satellites is the least of his abilities.”
“There seems to be a development,” Caulson interjected. “Agent Knight has met with the professor.”
Fury stood, worried across his face. “Do we need to call in our assets?
Causlon shook his head. “It seems Xavier is aware of Agent Knight's appointment. I’m sure we hadn’t had any leaks,” he paused. “Sir, there is a ranking beyond Alpha.”
Fury sat back down. He wasn’t surprised the telepath had found out earlier than expected that he and Romanoff would visit the school as part of the agreement with the government and do a welfare check on the mutant children. The government wasn’t dumb; they knew the professor wanted to coexist, but he also was creating a team of his best to handle mutant issues.
They had suspected such. He and many had theorized of individuals capable of being on the level of a nuclear-powered country. He reached down and squeezed out its era pager, thankful it had a deterrent to such a threat.
“Red Hood?” Hill said, bringing Fury from his thoughts.
He wasn’t aware of a mutant by that name. Could the mutant be a member of the Brotherhood? He looked toward Hill, who shook her head as she, too, read over the newly updated file.
Caulson unfolded his arms. “Agent Knight has been working on the unique side of the initiative program; she and other agents around the country have been recruiting enhanced individuals for the secondary program.”
Fury knew what he was speaking of. It was his idea, after all. He knew the Avenger initiative was viable, but his ultimate goal was the Avenger Legacy program. He wanted the youth for a particular academy, one that was already in the works, a place where the children could be trained and a sense of justice ingrained in them to help with that coming threat that he alone was aware of in the large galaxy.
Iceberg Lounge-Harlem, New York
Cole was unaware of a certain spymaster being alerted to him as he slowly awoke from a nap. He groaned as an unfamiliar phantom pain traced through his body, causing his body to tremble.
He hadn’t experienced anything like that before. He checked himself over before querying the system. His healing factor is still active, so what had caused him that much discomfort?
He looked at the time. He had been asleep for four hours. He entered the gym in one of the rooms above the lounge. He had a suspicion but wanted to test his theory out.
Two hours later, he had come to a halt, his fist impacting the body bag one last time, sending it sailing across the room and cracking the wall implanting into the wall. He would have to reinforce the walls.
He had recalled the scene where the newly awakened Captain American had decimated the weighted body bag. He threw a towel over his sweat-soaked shoulder and cast his eyes over his shoulder. At least the MCU Cap couldn’t do that. He had destroyed three two thousand pound body bags. It seemed the sudden exhaustion he experienced was related to his body improvement; what brought about it was still a mystery.
It wasn’t just the incredible power he felt his muscles now contained. It was the fact this development was happening the way it was. At any other time, his stat increase was indiscernible.
Still, now he had reached a peak, he assumed, and his body's impromptu improvement was related to the sudden bout of exhaustion he experienced earlier. He had experienced a minor setback on the bus, his strength becoming unpredictable.
He also realized that he had grown a few centimeters while his musculature had become incredibly well-defined. Curiously, he had checked his manhood, which had also gained a bit of length and additional girth.
Drying off with a towel and stepping out of the shower, he looked at himself in the mirror. Defined wirely muscles wrapped around his newly perfected bone structure; he flexed slightly, and his arms rippled like steel cords.
Cole stared into the foggy mirror; his trademark York grey orbs peered back at him. He could see his mother and father in his eyes, her Asian ancestry prevalent on his face. Besides his light brown skin, he had more of his mother's asiatic features than his father, his hair had grown, Jeremy York had enjoyed his dreadlocks, and Cole hadn’t cared, but he knew the boy had an attachment to them; they were more of a sign of his rebellious nature, short-lived as it was.
He had no blemishes, cementing his advancement to the very peak of humankind. He was handsome before, but now he was a grade above. It almost looked like he had surgery to achieve such results.
Was he even still considered human? He was an inhuman mutant according to the system, which was something he had no recollection of from his past life.
He departed the bathroom. Water dripped from his body. His hair was still damp from the earlier wash, so he dried it while he walked, making a mess of his floors. He had a sudden epiphany, which caused him to activate his emerging mutant ability. He chortled. He was a walking dryer now; steam rose from his naked flesh.
He mentally called for his status screen, and he paused in wonderment.
Name: Cole Stephens
Known Name: Jeremy York
Alias- Red Hood
Race: Inhuman Mutant
Physique: Updating…
Alignment: +Neutral
System-Bank: $224,567
Minion(s) Bullseye—Coerced 13%|100%
Legal—Contracted
Angelica "Angel" Jones—Contracted
Persona(s)Jason Peter Todd- Red Hood 99%|100%
Attributes
Intelligence: +Moderate Tier 3
Strength: +Moderate Tier 2–>2.5
Speed: Moderate Tier 2
Durability: +Moderate Tier 2–>2.5
Energy Projection: +Potential Tier 3
Fighting Skills: +Advanced Tier 4
Abilities
[Emerging] X-Gene
Unexposed] Terrigenesis
[+1] Holder of the Hero-Villain System.
[+5] Criminology: Deception. Enhanced Investigation.
[0] Occultism: The Host is knowledgeable on various mystical concepts due to his training with the All-Caste.
[+2] Enhanced senses: The host has supernatural senses, allowing them to see, hear, smell, taste, and feel better than an average species member.
[+3] Skilled marksman and expert tactician.
[+4] Expert martial artist and hand-to-hand combatant. Highly trained in Dim Mak.
[+3] Acute understanding and utilization of high-tech equipment, Bioengineering, and advanced weaponry.
[+4]Business Management: Wayne Enterprises, Lexcorp, Iceberg Lounge.
Computer Operations: Computer Hacking.
[+7] Enhanced strength, speed, and durability due to exposure to the Lazarus Pit and your latent mutant and inhuman metamorphosis. Chi reinforcement.
[+5] Inhuman Optimal Healing Factor: Granted by the system and reinforced by burgeoning Chi abilities, you can heal from extreme mental or bodily trauma in minutes.
[Limited] Chi Manipulation: Host mastery of martial arts has made him skilled in sensing and manipulating Bio-electricity energy. The host can channel Chi to enhance physical parameters and focus his Chi to increase healing and recovery time.
Fear Inducement: Your presence has shown itself as a fragment of fear. Unraveling your presence is now a physical thing. The target's perception may be altered, causing them to see their environment as ominous and the Host as dark and foreboding or even as a monster. This is considered a mutant ability
His overall physical attributes had notable progression. He must’ve hit a threshold of some sort, and he had a new tab, Physique.
That was interesting. Cole knew of characters with unique/special physiques, like Alien, Asgardian, and even the famous Kryptonian physique.
He was still prolonging the inevitable, though. He had to start a training regimen, regardless of whether it was the system or his realization; the two were almost interconnected, and he understood that his parameters could be increased externally. It was unfortunate the super soldier serums that existed wouldn’t affect him.
He nodded, satisfied with his investigation, and closed the screen.
His phone appeared in his hand, summoned from his inventory, having placed it inside before he took a shower. He looked down at himself and hadn’t even dressed. Uncaring about his nudity, he continued through the apartment. He was alone, and he quite liked the freedom.
He gave additional orders to Bullseye. His plans weren’t set in stone. Life held changes, and new information would slightly alter his plans. He contributed that quickly to his Persona. He wasn’t rigid in planning but fluid.
Plus, he had a gang to visit. The gangbangers in his backyard needed a lesson of humility, and he wanted to see how Paradise operated, owning an infamous club of his own now.
He needed that Adamantium constructed man man to find someone. He had searched for Hellfire Society, but nothing had come up, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t around; he knew of one person he was sure of everywhere since mutants existed alongside Spider-Man, and the Avengers were the Externals.
Two he was aware of vividly, the Immortal Selene, a life-stealing witch with more in common with vampires than mutants, and Apocalypse, the Egyptian Mutant that had a design on enslaving humanity and uplifting the most powerful of mutant-kind. And if she existed, then Shaw had to be around or already killed by Magneto. He believed the latter accurate since he had seen pictures of Charles Xavier in a wheelchair.
Speaking of vampires, he had also learned that they were around but ruled by a group of ancients and a council; houses existed, similar to the particular movie franchise, that warred for control, which was quite different from what he recalled. However, he knew the multiverse held many similarities and many differences.
Bullseye had responded. The man had a fascination for using emojis, but Cole didn’t mind. As long as his orders were completed, the man would get what he wanted the most. Which meant he had to check in on the doctor. If the assassin were to be of any use in the grand plan, he needed a boost.
Another search showed him Frost Technologies; he had to search for the infamous father of the Omega-level Telepath, and the man appeared on his screen, Winston Frost. The man would pit his children against each other to see who would inherit his vast fortune, the same man who abused his children and left them scarred.
He hadn’t discovered anything concrete about Emma; she had a minor criminal history, and her last known location was a gentleman's club. He tapped at the screen some more, searching before he got a hit. His brows rose. Hellfire Club existed, but it wasn’t an international mega corp, at least on the surface.
‘This is not the MCU.’ He thought.
It was an actual gentleman's club where Emma had been one of the dancers. He continued his search for her and found something even more disturbing. Essex Clinic. So, Mister Sinister was around, which meant the Weapon X program existed. He groaned out loud, angered at even more problems he would undoubtedly face, not now. At least, he just had to prepare and safeguard his identity. Worst case, if he ever gets exposed, he could change his appearance and start over.
He took a screenshot and sent it to Bullseye, but not before sending him the address to Redoubt. The man needed new gear, and with a simple thought, he had purchased the relevant kit. He had prewarned Angel about the latest asset and assured her of her safety from the man.
The girl, still emotionally unstable, hadn't elected to leave the secure place but decided to lock herself in the only room of the redoubt when the man showed up. He had allowed it and didn’t question her, nor did he care; her traumas were hers to get through, and if that trauma interfered with his goal, her contract would become breached. He didn’t know the consequences, but something assured by the system couldn’t be great.
He was still monitoring his other targets. It wasn’t time to pounce on them. The suitable time was near, though.
Engrossed as he was and in the safety of his home, he hadn’t been situation-aware and had missed something.
He had company.