CH 24: Training

After everything was finally over, Blade and Marcus left the temple.

"Alright, I guess my work here is done. Your friend is also safe. So, I'll get going."

"...Thanks for the help."

"No need to mention it, friend. And remember, if you want to find me, take this card and show it to anybody working at Hunt Industries, they will take you to me."

After giving the card to Blade, Marcus didn't wait to hear his response and got on his bike, which was waiting for him there, and drove away.

…..

Blade looked at Marcus driving away and then back at the golden card in his hand.

Reading the name, Hunt Industries, he thought, 'So, he works there. No wonder he can get those supplies for his Armor and his research.'

He put the card in his pocket and made his way to Karen who was hiding nearby.

…..

Marcus drove back to his base and stored his Armor and then got back on his bike and drove back to his mansion.

The guards recognized him and opened the gate and Marcus drove in to park his bike.

Marcus already messaged Albert about his arrival so he was waiting for him at the front door.

"Young Master, driving at your age is illegal."

"Oh, come on Albert, nobody can catch me, not on this baby."

Albert sighed after hearing that, knowing he couldn't convince his young master.

"Alright, whatever you say, young Master. But hurry and freshen up, your dinner is ready."

"Thanks, Albert.."

After taking a bath, Marcus made his way to the dinner table and ate the luxurious food with gusto. He had been missing out on all these rich flavors since he had been eating canned food for a week.

His dinner went on for half an hour before Marcus was finally done. After dinner, he brushed his teeth (courtesy of Albert) and went to bed.

After using his meditation to keep himself awake for a week, he wanted to take a well-deserved break.

********

The next morning…

Marcus had just woken up and was strolling in his mansion when he saw James outside, through the window.

He was examining the bike, up and down, and whistled from time to time.

"Like what you see, uncle James?" asked Marcus slyly.

James turned towards Marcus for a second before he turned back and kept touching the bike all over like a long-lost lover.

"C'mon, you can say that you like it. I designed it. Do you want to hear its specifications?"

James finally sighed and caved in, "Alright, tell me, Mr.genius. I am expecting great things."

"Alright, sit tight and relax. So first, Let's start with the speed. This baby can reach speeds up to 400m/h and it can also reach 0-60m/h in just one second. Yeah, she is built different, not suggested for normal people.

James was gobsmacked just by the speed of the bike but he knew that wasn't all, "Go on…"

"So the second thing, the fuel source. It has a built-in Arc Reactor which can keep this bike running at its fastest Speed for nearly a year straight, after which you can just change the palladium core and it would be good to go. So you'll never have to worry about refueling it while going on long drives…

When he heard that, James felt like he was being messed with. Sure it could go on for a while but a whole year's worth of energy, surely this wasn't normal right? but Marcus kept on going.

"And the third and the most important thing, Balance…I have designed this bike with a part of Deus integrated inside it. This means, the AI knows everything about the bike and can perform calculations on how to control it periodically to never crash. For example, Because it knows its own weight, it can calculate its drift if it brakes at high speeds, after calculating the angle of that drift, it will also know when to accelerate again to get back on track, and that's just a small example because it is capable of much, much more, limited only by my upgrades."

After hearing all the specifications, James' jaw nearly hung down. The most impressive things were the fuel source and the balance that Marcus talked about. Having a bike that can reach such speeds and wouldn't crash was a dream come true for any bike enthusiast.

"Uhm! My dear nephew Marcus, would you mind if I asked you to make one for me?"

"Yes, I would mind."

James felt like the cat got his tongue. He didn't think he would be outright rejected. But before he could speak anything Marcus said,

"I am exhausted from all the work I have been doing in the past week, Uncle James. So, I am not making one for you anytime soon."

Hearing that, James realized that making a bike of this caliber surely would have taken a great amount of time and effort. And he just asked for it casually. He ultimately thought he would just have to take it out whenever his nephew was not around.

And yeah, you can't take this one for secret rides because it's voice-activated."

James sighed slowly, pain and disappointment visible in his eyes.

And truly, Marcus was exhausted, but just a little, but he didn't want to do anything other than train his KI. Mainly because he felt that he was really close to a breakthrough in flight with the help of his KI, especially after its exponential rise when he administered Extremis on himself.

His increased endurance had provided him a massive boost to his KI production, which in turn strengthened his body even more.

In the past months, during experimentations, Marcus couldn't focus on training much of his skills and that was the reason why his KI cultivation had a measly 5% increase since the last time.

But, now that he was free, he had decided that for the upcoming month, he was only going to train his KI 24/7.

The company was left for Killian to manage and any big matters that needed his attention were sent to him via email.

That being said, Marcus had also bought shares in future famous companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, and because of his prices, the companies were easily willing to give him 20-30% of their shares.

The upcoming month was more like a Vacation than a training montage. He had told Albert that he was going on a vacation and had gone to someplace in the jungles of the Amazon rainforest.

Where his main motive was to cultivate peacefully. He just meditated and cultivated his KI as Piccolo did in Dragon Ball. For the whole month, he didn't eat, sleep, or excrete, because he didn't need any of those things due to his physique.

His power of absorbing light somehow enriched his cells and added with Extremis, eliminated his need for consumption of any nutrients.

And finally, after the month was over, Marcus had mastered his KI enough to take a flight.

Marcus stood up and controlled his KI to produce a thrust below his legs, and slowly, his body lifted itself from the ground.

Marcus noticed that the color of his KI was yellowish-orange, 'probably because of extremis or x-genes, maybe both' he reasoned.

After that little distraction, Marcus focused back on his flight. He slowly increased the amount of thrust and balanced himself in the air by using KI from his hands.

His prior habit of flying using the suit came in handy as he learned to balance himself in just a few seconds.

Marcus increased the thrust exponentially and launched up instantly, his yellowish-orange KI coating his body and leaving a trail of the same color.

"WOHOOO!"

Marcus maneuvered around at extreme speeds, flying through the forest and sometimes breaking through the trees, his KI sphere protecting him from damage.

After enjoying himself for a few minutes, Marcus decided to see how high he could reach. He turned around and launched upwards, he kept going and going, even after he breached the stratosphere, the mesosphere, and the thermosphere and he only stopped when he reached the exosphere.

A place where there were no clouds to block the light from the sun and in the distance, he could see some satellites orbiting the earth on the same level as him.

Marcus knew he couldn't keep seeing the sight for much longer, mainly because of the limited oxygen he carried with him in the KI bubble.

He knew it won't be long before these inconveniences would disappear and then this planet won't be enough to contain him. After which he would venture into the unknown and will conquer all or die trying till the end.

After a minute of watching the scenery, Marcus dived back down, his re-entry in the denser parts of the atmosphere at extreme speeds caused friction and an increase in temperature around him, but his KI protected him from that.

Although Marcus didn't have a speedometer to calculate his speed, by measuring the time he reached the lower reaches of the exosphere, which was around 700 kms from the Earth, he could get an approximate speed of around 1200km/h, which was close to the speed of sound.

Although his suit could easily reach triple that speed, Marcus was still very content with his progress.

But flight wasn't the only thing that KI could be used for, and what would be a better place to test his KI techniques than a forest where no humans lived?

But still, Marcus found an isolated place with a small waterfall, where he wouldn't hurt any animals accidentally. After all, he was already invading their personal space, and killing them just to test his powers wasn't in line with his morals.

After he made sure his surroundings were clear using his KI sense, Marcus lifted his right hand with his palms facing forward. After which, he controlled his KI to emerge from his hands and create a sphere.

Slowly, a yellowish-orange sphere floated in front of his palm. But Marcus could feel that if he launched this sphere, nothing would happen and it would dissipate after some time.

'So I have to imagine a KI ball with unstable particles which would blast on contact or after some time.'

Marcus dissipated his initial sphere and recreated another one, this time the KI ball had the properties of a bomb, a pure energy bomb.

Marcus launched the ball of KI directly at the big stone that was around 50 meters away from him.

The KI ball flew in a straight line and impacted the rock, which was around 3 meters big in height.

The impact caused the KI ball to detonate instantly with a big boom, throwing dust and rubbles everywhere.

After the dust settled, one could see the crater that had formed at the place where the rock was. The crater was nearly 2 meters in radius and a meter in depth.

"Whistle~ That's even better than I expected.

Seeing his efforts are not without results Marcus was happy. But he knew that this was only the starting point for his ki mastery. There were many things which he needed to learn and Master. But that was for later.

"Alright, now that I have learned the basics, it's time for me to return. I haven't seen a single human for a month now, and the cell reception here sucks. Sigh! I need to launch my satellites soon. Maybe even create a project like Starlink."

After his training montage was over, Marcus returned back to America using his private jet.

**********

A big juicy chapter worth your power stones, courtesy of the great editor...."whitedevil", and before you ask, yes he is peacemaker's father.

pilot armour has exams and he is still catching up with Marvel movies and binge watching them, so yeah.