17 Home Tormentor
*Felicia Hardy*
Some issues made Felicia leave the city. More precisely, Lydia Hardy, Felicia's mother, strongly requested her to go to another city and read an interesting file... And it all started so well. But the conversation that took place on the day when Walter proposed to date... Felicia immersed herself in memories.
When Felicia said goodbye to her boyfriend and returned home, her mother was already waiting for her, sitting on the couch and thoughtfully going through old rosaries left by her father.
"Do you want to talk about something, Mom?" Felicia asked.
"Yes, Felicia, tell me, what do you think about Walter Mayer?" the woman put the rosaries aside and looked into her daughter's eyes. The student felt herself blushing.
"What's happening to me, get it together!" a thought flickered.
"He's good-looking, doesn't mince words, and doesn't try to undress me with his eyes, mmm... I like him," she finished, slightly embarrassed.
"I see. Understandable. Well, I won't lecture you and ask for caution, you're already a grown-up girl, but still, take a closer look at him, is he really suitable for you?" Lydia was clearly holding something back.
"Mom?" Felicia raised an eyebrow questioningly.
"What, Mom?" the woman exploded, "I saw the way you looked at this Mayer... the last time I saw such a look was only when I saw your father... so I don't want you to get involved with some idiot, so I'm asking you, see how he reacts in various situations... while I'll try to find something about your new boyfriend."
"Alright, but I'm not thrilled with the idea of teasing a person who saved my life."
Felicia heeded her mother's advice and decided to see how the young man would react to attempts by other suitors to take her away. Michael Morbius came up very opportunistically, looking very similar to Walter, Felicia initially thought they were brothers, but these two "brothers" fell in love with each other at first sight, to the point where she was sometimes afraid they might kill each other. But no, Walter managed to do it in a more elegant way, not stooping to a banal brawl. And without getting caught. Oh, how she and her mother laughed when Felicia showed her photos of glowing Michael in a pink cloak...
And so, her mother's friends compiled a file on the young man. Walter Mayer.
Age: 23 years old.
Place of Birth: Moscow.
Parents: Mother - Victoria Mayer. Deceased during childbirth.
Father: information unknown.
Raised by his mother's brother, Oswald Mayer.
Okay, he has no records, hasn't been noticed or involved in anything. High school diploma, documents for admission to a university majoring in microbiology. Oswald Von Kirche's death certificate and his will. Well, at least the money of our family is hardly of interest to him - he's not in poverty, and there's also no evidence of his exploits, which is a relief... (although not being caught doesn't necessarily mean he wasn't involved, but one wants to believe the best), but why so little data, where are the medical records, or did he never get sick in 23 years? And this line about his father... Felicia felt the eternal curiosity inherent in the entire Hardy clan rise within her and quietly whispered, "What's your secret, Walter Mayer? Perhaps someday you'll tell me..."
*Walter Mayer*
Oh, what bad luck. It's been 12 hours already! 12 hours and nothing is happening! No contractions, no intrigue, just silence... I know it's the calm before the storm, but I really want to dive into the new wave of battles as soon as possible. Damn, what's happening to me? The further it goes, the more I'm getting fed up. And Felicia, of all times, won't be back for at least another two or three days.
We could have gone somewhere and relaxed, but no luck. Sitting in classes was quite boring – Parker already heard these lectures a couple of years ago, so I absorbed all the material at record speed through the chain technique. Besides, I didn't want to torture the students during the lab sessions either.
Noticing that Miss Hardy is nowhere to be found, several girls immediately set their sights on dragging me into their beds. Not that I was strongly against it, but rumors would start flying immediately. They'd say that while Felicia was away, a certain Walter Mayer found her replacement. And compared to the blue-eyed blonde, the other girls looked rather pale. Ah, to hell with excuses. I need to admit it to myself – I'm in love, head over heels. Oh, what to do to pass the time?
Then I remembered that I've been putting off upgrading my body for a while now, so why not? Said and done. I focused on my organism. First things first... the nervous system. Let's take it from the spider, there's no alternative, and its reaction speed is truly impressive. Although Lizard... He might be faster, but I don't have the final transformation form material, and taking a raw sample is not too wise, plus the difference is not significant. So the spider it is; besides, its genes are more "human."
Next, the muscular tissue. What do we have? Spider again? - No, let's do something else first. The mutation in Parker changed the cell structure, but the actual muscle fibers remained the same – red and white. What if we first replace them with pink ones? Well, that immediately raises some problems with nutrition and oxygen supply, even though pink muscle fibers outperform both red and white, they consume a lot too.
An energy source is needed; it seems the Symbiote can absorb any radiation, so photosynthesis is out of the question... Perhaps? Great! Then let's make some modifications to the body cells – the host will serve the same function... Damn, it's tough. Copying Spider's genes five times is easier, maybe even ten... Whew... Alright, it will work, but I'd better not separate myself – the host – and myself – the Symbiote now, so to speak, to avoid complications.
So, what's next? Ah, yes, let's now look at the genes of Spider, Scorpion, Rhino, and Lizard, responsible for enhancement, and try to find some common denominator, combining them and removing all the junk. Oh, like my professor from my previous life used to say, "What a nice equation you've got there, multi-level, mind-boggling, and the eyes twitch when you see it... It's even pleasant for me! And you, dear students, will have such fun now..." He was a good guy; he could explain any topic in five minutes with his fingers.
Alright, now, if it works, then I'll be able to lift a dump truck without the help of the suit. We've sorted out the muscles, what's next? Oh, a splendid set of organic poisons from Scorpion. I'm not entitled to a tail, so let's create appropriate glands in my hand. And at the same time, an additional pair of bones designed like a scorpion's stinger and capable of being extended from the base of the palm, delivering poison to the enemy's body.
The extension mechanism also requires additional muscle fibers, not to forget that. I ended up with two narrow bony blades, about twenty-five centimeters long. It took some effort to shift the vessels and fibers in my hand to the new configuration, but it turned out not bad. Of course, Wolverine's adamantium claws would be more aesthetically pleasing, but I simply can't figure out how to arrange the bones and muscle tissues in his hand to achieve this mechanism. I had to rearrange everything here as well, and I can't even imagine what's happening in Logan's hand... But it still turned out alright.
One drawback, though, is that the web-shooters are located very close, just a couple of centimeters up the arm. If I ever get tangled and release both devices, it will be quite amusing... Hm, interesting, where do I get so much webbing? It doesn't come out of thin air. The only idea was that it's matter – essentially another form of energy, and with a large amount of this energy, anything can be created... such as the necessary chemical substances for webbing. But how much energy can the symbiote absorb and generate? The approximate figure made me feel sick, so I hurriedly shifted my attention to something else.
Bones? Hm... No, there's nothing else but Rhino's option for me at the moment. Of course, I could use the scales of lizards and the chitin of scorpions, but the mutants I know personally didn't inherit armor from their smaller relatives, or hardly inherited it. And Rhino had bone tissue, which means adapting it would be easier. Although, of course, the strength of his bones is more due to their width rather than their quality, but still, better than nothing. Oh, how I'd love to have an adamantium skeleton like Logan's... Oh well, Darkness will provide, and I'll acquire even more. But just to ease my conscience, let's try the same trick as with the muscles, meaning, combine the genes of different individuals, maybe I'll gain a few extra percentages of strength. But in the future, I'll look for more solid donors.
Alright, now the skin. There's almost nothing left to change, just some minor adjustments to what the muscle enhancement chain didn't touch, and that should be enough. Yes! Chameleon cells, I almost forgot. They are not as advanced as Mystique's, with much higher capabilities, but we have what we have... Now, the general upgrade of organs based on the multigene, heh-heh... Aaand... Overall, that's it.
Opening my eyes, I blissfully stretched. Well, the plan is laid out, now it's time to give the command to proceed. But first... Having an absolute memory has its advantages – I remembered how much I wanted to eat, both the host and the Symbiote, after the small, one might say cosmetic changes, so I thought ahead and decided to stock up on supplies.
Visiting the grocery store (actually several), I bought around 15 kilograms of meat in each one, totaling almost a hundred kilograms. I lugged all this back home and then went back outside, this time to the pharmacy. Proteins are proteins, but nobody canceled avitaminosis and zinc deficiency, so I added several packs of different vitamins from the pharmacy to my stash.
What else? Calcium! Another trip to the store, this time buying kefir, cottage cheese, and cheese. Damn, it's quite weird. Just in case, after memorizing all the possible current parameters of my body, I went into the bathroom, placing three adrenaline-filled syringes next to me and surrounding myself with meat, cheese, and vitamins. Mhm, I feel like an idiot, oh well, let's go!
I woke up about eight hours later, feeling sore, and I was terribly hungry. The meat in the bathtub was gone (as well as the cheese, but there were still a few tablets of vitamins left in the package). Struggling to get up, I inserted the needle of the syringe into my arm.
The needle bent slightly but held, though the injection process was noticeably slower. The hunger was getting worse, so I just poured the contents of the remaining two syringes into my mouth. I felt a little better after that. Struggling to reach the fridge (again, problems with the center of gravity and muscle memory, though this time I adapted faster), I started transferring its contents into myself, hardly paying attention to such trifles as heating the food or removing the packaging.
Gosh, what would have happened if I hadn't thought to buy food? Once I somewhat regained my senses, I hurried to the mirror. Well, externally I didn't change, except for the monstrous skinniness and the sickly color of my skin. With a look just like resurrected zombies.
Here the Chameleon cells came in handy; after giving them the command to assume a normal color and texture, I concluded that now they probably won't mistake me for an escaped morgue patient anymore. However, some "compliments" from the establishment might still be on the way. Although, that's probably an exaggeration on my part... But the idea about the cafe is quite reasonable.
It took me no more than five minutes to walk to the nearest snack bar – I still felt extremely hungry, but there was no food left at home. I surprised the people in the cafe a lot by managing to devour 14 large portions of something resembling ramen (Naruto, now I begin to understand you, this thing is really filling), after which, feeling full and satisfied, I went outside.
Deciding to get some fresh air, I transformed into a Nazgul in a secluded dead-end, and then I decided to swing on my web a bit. Here another unpleasant feature of my new body was revealed. Although I didn't change externally, I definitely gained weight, at least an extra 20-30 kilograms... In principle, it could be attributed to the volumes of food I had eaten and which hadn't yet been processed, but damn, I'm going to get caught sooner or later with this weight.
Moreover, my mass has definitely increased, and something needs to be done about it, but what? Just then, a guy in a black leather cloak flew by near me. (Neo, what are you doing in our parts?) Oh, it seems clear what I can do here. I hitched a ride on the tail of the vampire. I had no intention of chasing or, God forbid, fighting him – he posed no threat to me, but spicing up Michael's life with some of my "antics" and leading to Blade might be beneficial, though when Blade will appear...
So, I simply ordered almost all my cells (except for the standby set, again) to detach from Morbius, who was flying about his vampire business, and then it was easy to gather them back. With the new genetic material, I received new interesting options. So, I hurried back home.
So, what do we have now? An interesting digestive system – the blood in it decomposes almost at the atomic level, like in cold fusion reactors, which provides an insane amount of energy. It's unclear why the same doesn't happen with other matter that enters this vampire's stomach, but only blood dissolves there. And where does he get so much energy?
Ah, I see, it goes towards nourishing his muscles, a large portion of which now also consists of pink fibers with quite an interesting genetic deviation. And, of course, for sustaining flight. The mechanism was incredible. A natural biological anti-gravity! The cells emitted... mmm... waves... radiation... hm... let's call it a signal, which allowed to invert the gravitational component. The more cells emit it, the higher you go, and the greater the difference between the "volumes" of such signals, the faster you fly towards the loudest one.
Quite simple, and the maneuverability turns out to be amazing. But damn, I don't understand how it works, can't even explain it properly. Ugh, it looks like I'll have to get another degree, but this time in quantum physics, because I won't figure it out with just genetics. I wonder if Stark will take me as an assistant?...
Well, alright, meeting Stark is still far off for me, but right now it seems I'll have to go for meat again. Even though I don't understand how it works, I should be able to replicate it. Probably... However, it's suspicious that Morbius was able to gain such powers from a simple mouse. It's more likely that he himself was still an unawakened mutant at the time, though I have no proof of that.
Spending another three hours on all these manipulations, I achieved the desired result – a constant levitation. I'd rather not remember how many times I hit my head on the ceiling, supplying more energy than necessary, or crashed into walls due to uneven delivery of "current." I decided against practicing on the rooftop – having two guys flying around the city in leather cloaks is not "The Matrix" anymore, it's just a branch of some madhouse, so no, we better do it quietly, at home.
Now the scales showed 85 kilograms, as it was before all these changes. So, I spent almost a day on self-improvement. The icing on the cake was upgrading my cloak – I just gave my Symbiote the structure of the material from Hobgoblin's cloak. Ah, it's beautiful.
A new workday began, and I admired the view of the awakening city from the 26th floor. Oh yes, the panorama from here was impressive. I was pulled out of my contemplative state by a phone call. The guys from the recruiting agency managed to find the right candidate. And now, two hours later, a classic grandma stood before me. Slightly plump, with a kind face and a gentle smile.
Nostalgia washed over me, I wanted to leave everything behind, grab Felicia, and head back to my homeland... except that this Russia was quite different from the one I was used to. The collapse of the USSR did happen, but unlike in my world, our beloved rulers couldn't loot this Russian nation.
Well, they tried their best, but when the most agile and daring ones started beheading conscious citizens (after all, "supers" didn't only exist in the States)... enthusiasm for looting the national wealth faded. So, things aren't as bad here as they are in my world, but the main problem is that the Cold War didn't end here.
Yes, the "Empire of Evil" took a good hit, but not a fatal one. It just shifted the arms race and espionage to another level. This heightened the level of paranoia among our special services, who were already so upset about the collapse of the Union. I couldn't possibly know everything, but vague doubts plagued me that our GB wouldn't be as deaf as the American "Shield," so it wasn't really the right time for me to go to Russia or the CIS countries, unless as a tourist for a very short period.
But getting back to the topic of the housekeeper. Zinaida Prokopyevna(trying not to laugh.... xD), after looking at my emaciated frame and slightly cluttered apartment, vowed to turn me into a proper human being, as looking at this "skeleton" was terrifying. The payment issue was quickly resolved too – the housekeeper's job was valued at just under 20,000 per year (and that included her needing to buy her own food). So, I offered her something around 30,000 per year and a small apartment nearby. Her duties would include cleaning, cooking, and restocking the fridge if needed.
The woman agreed – it was hard to find a job for an emigrant from the "Empire of Evil," well, at least for an ordinary worker, the West was always eager to get hold of "brains." I brushed off any questions about such generosity, simply switching to Russian and stating that I was happy to connect with a fellow countrywoman. Mhm, judging by her expression, I have a real chance to test if a hideous monster from space can die from overeating.
The housekeeper would start work tomorrow, and in the meantime, the agency guys were arranging her new apartment. Later, she went to inspect the refrigerators and was horrified to find only beer and a lack of any other food. So, I had to hastily send her to the store for groceries. Yes, quite an active old lady... The whole day went by in bustle and cares, and it was only at night that I managed to leave the house, luckily Zinaida Prokopyevna(xD ...again...) lived separately.
As I reached the kiosk, I bought the latest edition of "Evening New York," and in the newspaper, there was a report about another attack by an unknown monster on innocent passersby, leaving them in serious condition. Oh well, Michael continues to rage, I wonder if he'll appear at the institute, or has his "superior being complex" finally fried his brain?
The young guy strolled through the evening city, admiring the bright shop windows and listening to another track on his player.
Somewhere nearby, a swift silhouette of a vampire cut through the night darkness.
In their hideouts, the shadowy rulers were devising plans for the upcoming war.
And one fragile blue-eyed girl didn't know what to do next.
Blade arrived in the city this morning, but the guy wasn't concerned about the world surrounding him right now; he was simply walking through the city life and enjoying it, trying to absorb the last days of peaceful living, with a song playing in his headphones.
There's an old tale wrought with mystery, of Tom the Poet and his muse
And a magic lake which gave a life to the words the poet used
Now, the muse she was his happiness, and he rhymed about her grace
And told her stories of treasures deep beneath the blackened waves
Till' in the stillness of one dawn, still in its misty crown
The muse she went down to the lake, and in the waves she drowned
And now to see your love set free
You will need the witch"s cabin key
Find the lady of the light, gone mad with the night
That's how you reshape destiny
The poet came down to the lake to call out to his dear
When there was no answer he was overcome with fear
He searched in vain for his treasure lost and too soon the night would fall
Only his own echo would wail back at his call
And when he swore to bring back his love by stories he'd create
Nightmares shifted in their sleep in the darkness of the lake
And now to see your love set free
You will need the witch"s cabin key
Find the lady of the light, still raving in the night
That's how you reshape destiny In the dead of night she came to him with darkness in her eyes Wearing a mourning gown, sweet words as her disguise
He took her in without a word for he saw his grave mistake
And vowed them both to silence deep beneath the lake
Now, if it's real or just a dream one mystery remains
For it is said, on moonless nights they may still haunt this place
(A.N - Poets of the Fall. The Poet And The Muse, I shared the text due to a lyrical state of mind, desiring something of that sort, so please refrain from throwing any shoes at me)
Ahead was war, a war that he himself unleashed.
The young man smiled, well, so let it be..."
