14 Chapter 4 Part 1

Magus in Marvel

Chapter 4 Part 1

By: Pineappl3

I frowned as I looked through the information Athena was able to gather on Walter Hardy, Felicia's dad. Walter was known to many in the underground world as one of the best thieves and cat burglars.

There had been talks, and I even had a first hand account from Felicia, that Walter had some sort of deal with Kingpin to steal something. Although Athena couldn't find out what it was, she could speculate.

Kingpin, also known as Wilson Fisk, was an interesting man to say the least. He was a man who held both intellect and brawn, as could be seen from his impressive build and gleaned from how he pitted the many sides of the criminal underbelly against each other.

He used said gangs to open the door for him to promote his business legally, making it harder for a legal take down. For what I had started to observe, it seemed that a legal take down was the easiest, but it was by no means easy.

He had many enemies, but he also had powerful allies. Athena was able to gather little tidbits that alluded to such info. The mentions of "The Devil of Hell's Kitchen" or the "Hand" had piqued my interests, but I decided to focus on the matter of Walter's apparent death.

Athena was 80 percent sure Walter was hired to steal something from Norman Osborn, and this particular item was guarded better than Fort Knox. Felicia did mention it was a big heist, his biggest yet. I sighed, the more I looked at the information the less likely it seemed Walter was killed.

If he was one of the only people who could steal this mystery item, why kill him? It made no logical sense. I was certain Walter was still alive in some capacity, but I wasn't sure.

I was fine with leaps of logic and I was even willing to bet my life on them, but for my star pupil's sake, I would continue to search for information until I was certain Walter was 100 percent dead or alive.

Although the situation was grim, a single good had come from it. Felicia had thrown herself into her training, and I could tell if I was not careful, she would pass me up in raw strength.

I had promised her to help her grow strong enough to take on the Kingpin himself, as she was dead set on believing he was the man who murdered her father. I had, however, convinced her to stay her hand until I deemed her physically and mentally ready to take the man on.

In actuality I could care less about the fate of Kingpin, for now he would be a stepping stone for my apprentice no matter if he killed her dad or not.

Felicia began to stay here at my tower as she said it was too depressing with her mother getting drunk every night . It seemed that every hour of the day she was training, and that was probably true if she made good use of her familiar.

Just to be sure though, I had made sure Nixie would monitor and take care of her while I was busy. Sofia, invigorated by Felicia's determination to get strong, also took the chance to throw herself into training, and even now she was getting theoretical lessons from Athena to prepare for her Mana Baptism.

Aldebaran on the other hand did seemingly little to nothing in the time he was here. I couldn't tell why but he avoided only me. I assumed he had more gifts and one of which allowed him to glean something about me, but even then I had no Idea why he would avoid me.

It wasn't as important to me since he helped out by using his gifts of divination to inform Athena of stock trends and other important information that had considerably helped our funds grow.

I pushed the thoughts of Alderbaran to the side and returned to looking at the information provided by Athena, 'Oh? Black Fox, what an interesting person. Seem's he has taken an interest in Felicia since her dad's disappearance. Maybe she should take a break from magic and learn her father's legacy. She will need a clear mind to grow in ways other than in raw power.'

With a plan already forming in my head, I left the search for Black Fox to Athena and began to pack my bags. It was finally August and today was to be my first day of College.

I had hoped it offered more than High School's dry tidbits as I was told the school I was attending contained some of the world's brightest minds. Empire State University would hopefully be a place I could speak to peers on the exciting facets of this world. I knew that without someone to bounce ideas and concepts off of, I would grow crazy and narrow minded.

'I'm excited for Chemistry, there is truly no better science for an Alchemist such as myself. Who wouldn't want to understand the makings of the universe and how they interact? Mad men, that's who.'

"Master," I turned in my chair to face Nixie, "I'm ready. Are you?"

I nod to her and place my Mother's laptop in my bag, "Let's go." With that, I moved over to Nixie and brought her close. With a thought we were now outside the gates of the campus.

I looked around to make sure my illusion worked, I noticed a girl staring at me. She was roughly 5'10" and had dyed hair, her brown roots betraying the otherwise natural looking blonde.

She looked young, but from a glance I could tell she had already seen hardship. I was surprised looking at her, since I had not noticed her. What had alerted me to her presence was the fact I had felt something brush against my mental shields.

I projected a mental chuckle to the young woman and gave a verbal laugh at her shocked expression. 'Stick with the basics kid, telepathy is too high a level of a skill for you. A Frost huh? I own some of your Dad's company. I'll see you around Emma.'

After doing a light prod of my own I had found out her identity alone since I thought it rude to dig any deeper. With that little showcase of one of my spells, I entered the gates and made my way to the Freshman Orientation with Nixie.

I looked over to Nixie, "I still don't know why you decided to major in Biology, but I can see the uses of it."

She smiled then replied, "If we can better understand the body, we can better understand people. From their weakness to their strength, we could find the best ways to train or defeat people physically. It can also help recreate that dragon you think about occasionally. I know you want another dragon heart."

I let a helpless expression show on my face, "You got me. A very good point. Also, you've seen my memories. Why wouldn't you want a dragon heart?"

All I got was a giggle in response and I shook my head at that. I had finally arrived at the lecture hall that the orientation was being held and entered, Nixie in tow. I took the first seat in the back and noticed a burning gaze targeted at me.

Looking to my left I noticed Emma, the girl I had met before, was staring at me from across the hall. 'It won't work you know. I'm protected against most spells from people weaker than me.'

She attempted to speak back, but my natural shields prevented her from doing so. Taking pity on her, I allowed her to at least talk to me mentally.

'Are you a mutant too?' She asked with a hesitant tone.

'No. I'm an Archmagus. That power you hold, the ability to cast Telepathy at will, I learned ages ago and mastered. You seem to have the basics down, but you lack finesse.'

I could tell that at the mention of my mastery over telepathy she grew excited, 'C-can you teach me?'

'If you would have asked me months ago I would have said yes. As it currently stands, I have my hands full with my two apprentices. However, if you can impress me, I'll teach you.'

She tried to respond but I let my mental shields return to normal and I focused on the orientation. Throughout the entire hour long session, her gaze had never left me and I was finally free from her sight when I entered my first class of the day.

I entered the small lecture hall for Chemistry II as I had managed to test out of Chemistry I and listened as roll was called. After my name was called I began to lose myself in thought until a particular name was called

"Dr. Richards?"

"Here."

'Couldn't be a doctor without this class so he must have a doctorate in something. I have just found someone to match my intellect.' I grinded at the thought. Soon I would take the chance to speak to this Dr. Richards and evaluate for myself if he was worth being my peer.

I could always use a spell to find out, but that defeated the purpose of building connections, it was one of the reasons I attended after all.