39 Attack on Hero Part 6

-Peters home later that afternoon-

Peter made his way off the bus as it stopped at his house. Jean and the gang waved him goodbye as the bus drove off. 

They left him with their contact details to get in touch when he came to a decision. It was a surprisingly uneventful bus ride back home. Flash and his gang, along with a certain blond were loaded on a different bus giving Peter some much-needed peace to get some sleep on the way back. 

He waved them goodbye as he made his way into his home. He didn't stay long, he freshened up, changed his clothes, and packed some dinner before he made his way to the kennel where his hideout was located. 

As he walked down the streets, he let his mind wander. He had many things to think about; Jean, Wanda, and their mutant groups that were planning to recruit him for whatever reason; the fact that Stark - Iron Man had a freaking AI in his possession, that was a mind-boggling discovery. Cypher's (Techno) simulations hinted at it but meeting one was something else entirely. It made him want to geek out when it first revealed itself - it only served to increase his impression of Tony Stark as the man made a literal AI years ahead of anything on earth using current technology was amazing. 

A smile made its way on his lips. Maybe he should also consider thanking the man for his kind donation to his technical marvels that were currently being sorted within his mind. 

Ah, there was that too. He had to sort the recent data he acquired from his servers too. That was another thing on his list. He would do that tonight; he had the weekend to himself to figure things out. He already had a few ideas on how to do with Babylon thanks to the addition of Starks files. 

He had a lot to do tonight and tomorrow. 

...

-Peter's hideout thirty-six hours later-

Peter lounged lazily on his couch within his hideout as his consciousness retreated to his mind. His physical avatar was a simple sexless humanoid light construct that had his facial features. He waved his hands past as streams of data from numerous parts of the meta-verse slid past. Around him multiple versions of himself that looked identical to him went to work performing various tasks. 

He's been in the meta-verse for thirty-six days, seven hours, forty-two minutes, and fifteen seconds. As he familiarized himself with Technopathy, truly immersed himself with it as one being he discovered this neat trick. 

Time dilation. Although it wasn't that simple, he accelerated his thought process by further splitting his psyche through a complex application of parallel thinking, using it to delegate various tasks through virtual clones, something he picked from Jarvis, each clone processed and worked on different distinct task and conveyed the data to him for final process while he himself did other things. 

He didn't notice at first until he left to get something to eat and discovered the deference in the flow of time or rather his perceived flow of time. 

It was both surprising and thrilling. At first, the dilation difference was only by a few minutes; twenty minutes within the meta-verse was five minutes in the real world. When he increased his number of clones, something that almost fried his brain again he discovered a loophole. 

His body's natural adaption to physical and mental strain. He created an automated loop by exploiting his own body, he strained himself by creating clones then delegated one to monitor his body until it adapted enough to support another clone that would further strain himself and then repeat the process until another could be made.

He repeated that process until the time dilatation increased from minutes to hours and from hours to days. Each clone added to his ability to process information making the acquisition of knowledge and data effortless for him. 

It was insane, what he could do now, the amount of information he could process. The only downside was this was only possible if he and Cypher were merged as a single being. It had something to do with the human part of his ability that the machine part lacked although the ability itself improved in functionality by using the data from their merge as a basis for improvement to improve its own functionality. A form of self-evolution, it was similar in nature to the way he exploited his body's natural ability to physically adapt. 

After days of sorting through the data and scenarios for his future that were equivalent to hours in the real world, he came to his conclusion. 

All in all, his impression of one Tony Stark skyrocketed. He had to hand it to the egotistical hero. 

The man was indeed a certified genius. His inventions and tech innovations were simply a wonder to assimilate. His presence within his mind's virtual space was the perfect place to sort out his thoughts, Cyphers added input and simulations helped him greatly when planning his next course of action. 

And as it turns out, Jean's appearance and her school's unique nature were a godsend in a way he never considered until now. 

 He was finishing up his final task for his re-mastered plan.

Thanks to the simulation Cypher ran with the help of his clones with the limited data he had available it concluded that this was the best course of action he could take to reach his intended goal. 

Right now, he was digitally legitimizing his emancipation to be acknowledged as a legal adult in the eyes of the law given his present situation with his aunt and finalizing his 'legal' transfer to Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Its unique position really was a god send. He could go to Jean's school and use it as a form of camouflage at least. 

Those were the first two steps, independence, and freedom. 

He wasn't planning to attend the school, not really, but he could be registered as one of their students and foster a beneficial working relationship with them. He was all but sure that they would keep his secret so legally and to the public eye, the teenager Peter Parker would be attending Xavier's live-in boarding school year-round until graduation while, he could work on other things. 

It suits his situation perfectly. 

Furthermore, thanks to the data from Stark and some more planning and simulations the next part of his plan in relation to Babylon began to take form.

He was going to make himself famous, he was going to make himself share the same limelight on par with the likes of Tony Stark and Reed Richards. It was the only logical conclusion he came to when working on solutions on how to deal with organizations that operated in the shadows of history. 

He needed to harness Power, not just power, but political and social power. He needed to be known in the public eye in a way that made him 'Peter Benjamin Parker' indispensable to the current world in a way that would make it difficult to publicly attack him or those close to him.

To do that he needed to make a company that pioneered in all fields of science and research with him as a miraculous child genius figurehead, and he needed to find one other person who could run it as its founder and as the 'visionary' who found him, Peter Parker a tragic child with a brilliant mind and funded his inventions out of 'belief' or whatever. 

The practical implications for such a company would be immensely helpful in so many ways. The data he got from Stark with some improvements would throw him above all others in terms of tech innovation and a few alterations to his lizard serum would push him ahead of any pharmaceutical companies in every country. 

Yes, it was all coming together in the best way; it all seemed possible, achievable to him now. 

He realized he could also help his fellow 'mutants' as a pretax to recruit them and or actually help them too, he had so many ideas and the ever-increasing processing power of his technopathy further fueled those simulated possibilities into an achievable path. 

From what he gathered from his limited interaction with the Maximoff twins they were 'fighting' for their 'right' to exist, what if he could provide them with an environment that would allow them to not only exist but flourish under the public eye in a way that would help them 'fight' their battle by joining his side. 

He didn't need to fight or join any side. No, they would join him, he wouldn't need to work for anyone if they could work for him. 

All he had to do was pave a path for them to follow on their own volition to him. Yes, he could see it, but he had to make them see it too, but he was digressing from his current task. After finishing up the final tasks for his emancipation and transfer to Xavier school he quickly went to work on finding the founder of his company. 

No time like the present to begin a plan for world domination, in a way. He would have laughed if he still could right now. 

Finding a founder was simple enough to do as he was, he simply made an algorithm to sweep the metaverse for likely candidates that fit a particular criterion. The criteria were as follows; One, they must be sick, dying, or physically disabled in a way that was detrimental to them or be physically and emotionally tied to someone who met those criteria. Two, they must have a high IQ or the behavioral and social markers of someone with a high IQ. The third one was a disregard for morality which could be found based on their online activities and lastly, they must need something that only he could provide, something they would give up anything for. 

He used countless research papers published by the smartest people around the world as a basis for this algorithm and delegated the task to Cypher to work on. 

Resources and assets could be gathered after this step was complete. Now the next step for the month was to visit Jean's school and work something out with Charles Xavier. He had some ideas for that as well. It was so easy now that he gave it some serious thought.

He didn't have the knowledge or know-how to do any of this, but he didn't need to have it. He had the metaverse for that. He could borrow that knowledge from the best in the world for as long as he was within the meta-verse. 

He could see it, his path to victory. 

This would work. If done right his human alter ego that was the teenager Peter Parker would be almost untouchable, him and those close to him. His family when he found them would be safe, and Aunt May would be safe. After he finished not even the world government or any criminal organization would be able to touch them. Not without costing them everything in the process. If anyone dares to cross that line, then…

Well…

That was what Babylon was for.

-Chapter end-