6 Chapter 6: Rumors of "Upgrade"

--------2 months later---------

Spending his time late at night on learning and practicing every known hacking and virus creation/defense program, Damien became adept in the skill within 2 months. During which time he had practiced using his new computer, his parents computers, and the computers at school. All the hacks and viruses he created were just harmless things that were fixed after 2 hours or by restarting the systems. Within that time he was able to hack into public systems with little to no security without detection. But using his powers he was able to enhance his skills and able to get into the less secure private systems for small companies. So he continued to practice, and every time his hacking skills advanced he would make new programs and improve all the backdoors and hidden viruses planted in many systems/servers.

At midnight, now December 15th, Damien was finally skilled enough to hack into the Bank of America and created a bank account for himself. This Checking and Savings account was under his name, social and everything. This account was hacked to make it seem as if he was a legal adult in the system. He also was able to hack into the bank accounts of various drug dealers, human traffickers, and murderers giving himself a starting budget of $10,000. He was even nice enough to gather all the evidence needed to arrest those same criminals while giving the credit to good cops that don't take bribes and bend the law. These 18 criminals that Damien helped put away, and took a negligible amount of money from, helped make the career of 25 cops in New York City. While his way of contacting these officers involved hacking electronic devices they were using while alone and only giving them the info needed and a name to refer to. The name he told them was "Upgrade". Followed by a black and green circular symbol with two inverted triangles vertically centered inside. ( think omnitrix symbol) Using his knowledge of the Marvel world, it was easy for Damien to remember the names of a lot of crooks that were captured easily or had no effect on the storyline. While at the same time he knew of a few truly heroic cops in New York city as well. Which is how the name "Upgrade'' spread after reporting to their superiors how they got their info.

With his start-up capital, Damien used his powers to invest in the stock market. Being connected to the system, he knew down to the millisecond when stocks started to drop in value. Allowing him to turn $10,000 into $100,000 within 2 months. During that time period he was also researching stocks and the stock market. Becoming a great trader within a month. Also looking up the different companies and programs currently in use to the general public. Outside the $100,000 in profits he still had enough to buy a 1% share of LinkedIn and looked forward to the launch of MySpace, Facebook, and the streaming platforms in the years to come.

Now August 11th 2003, Damien sits in class, reviewing his progress,while the teacher is lecturing. He now has $1,000,000 in profits from the stock market, and that's not counting the money he put into buying shares of LinkedIn, MySpace, Disney, and a few other companies as well. Using his powers he is now able to connect to 10 devices all at once while 100 miles away from them. He is a 7 year old able to lift 200lbs without breaking a sweat. And his mindscape has further strengthened, making the maze harder to navigate, strengthening the barriers, and increasing the amount of knowledge he can store.

Due to new computer access over the past 10 months Damien was able to study engineering, electronics systems, chemistry, biology , and some medical knowledge. All of which to an intermediate level at least.

His Hacking has even advanced to such a level that the pentagon isn't able to detect his breach in security. He even continued to help the police with his hacking and spread his name by helping officers across New York in getting evidence against criminals that won't affect the storyline. While at the same time recording and storing evidence of major criminals that affect the MCU storyline.

Damien-* To think after all this time I will finally be able to begin my plans and start preparing for my debut as a hero. First things first, I have 4 major tasks that have to be done tonight and doing so will make things a lot easier for me. The first task is to use his powers to hack into Stark industries systems and get a copy of Jarvis's Base code and use it to create an AI of his own. Second is to hack into the systems of every computer owned by known villains and their future accomplices. Third is to hack into the computer systems of all future heros and S.H.I.E.L.D. While at the same time Using the AI to track and Monitor all the important people. The fourth and final task is to use my finds to create a base of operation for my future hero career and a new more advanced supercomputer and network system for my AI to run at the most optimal state without detection. This is going to be a long and exhausting night.* thinking that Damien sighs aloud, interrupting the teacher in the middle of his explanation about fractions.

Teach-"Mr shade, if class is so boring, why don't you tell the class the answer to the problem on the board."

Damien thinks back and recalls the professor was using a circular diagram to represent a pizza with 6 slices and was describing what would happen if 2 were eaten.

Looking back at the teacher Damien started to answer the question in a dull tone.

Damien-" if 2 slices were eaten from the pizza, then there would only be 4/6 of the pizza left. And when simplified there will be only ⅔ of the pizza left for everyone else. "

The teacher and his classmates look at him stupefied..

Teacher-"yes, Uhm. That's correct. Well class… Let's continue on with the lesson."