Chapter 075 – Locked In

[2009 – July]

As I had already discovered, this Universe was an uncertain mix of the MCU and the Marvel comics, and I had no idea how far they mixed and what horrific enemies from the comics might appear in the future.

The problem with most of them was though that I had no idea about what to expect as I was not that knowledgeable when it came to the comics, so all I could really do was prepare for the worst while hoping for the best.

There was however one thing I knew about the comics that posed a danger to me, and a great one at that, as the vague information I could recall about events and characters from the comics told me that the greatest danger with advanced technology around was cloning.

This was a particular danger to mutants as their powers originated from their genetic make-up, and my Self-Creation was given to me as a mutant power, which meant every clone of mine would have the exact same power, which was something I definitely couldn't allow.

Until now, I hadn't done anything to avoid being cloned but I knew it was time to rectify this as with my powers growing, and the most recent fight against the X-Men, I had no doubt that the parties with the necessary resources to clone somebody would be greatly interested in a sample of my DNA.

Bio-Circuit was my countermeasure to such attempts. It was an Epsilon-level power I thought up that did only one thing, and that was to force my cells to connect in something akin to a biological circuit with my brain being the 'generator', or more precisely the origin point of this circuit.

Every cell that lost its connection with my bodily tissue, and therefore my brain, would lose any semblance of vitality and its molecular structure would crumble after a few minutes, with my bio-electricity as the trigger.

Each cell possessed a base charge, and once disconnected from my body this charge would slowly be used up until nothing was left at which point a chain reaction would be triggered and the internal structure of the cells would just disintegrate.

It was a rather simple power that made any attempts to steal my DNA moot, as my hair would just crumble to nothingness if removed from my head, and even my blood would just lose its molecular stability and turn to dust once it left my veins for longer than a few minutes.

This closed biological circuit would make it impossible for anyone to clone me from this point forward.

I could have tried to create an ethereal barrier to shield myself from any attempts of cloning, but that would force me to keep it active every waking moment. I did have my Program-ability, but this seemed to be a more permanent and rather simple solution which I preferred.

At the same time, any type of magic or curse involving my bodily tissue, especially voodoo, was basically useless against me now, as nobody would be able to get their hands on even a single cell with my DNA. I knew the chances of that happening were minuscule, but it was a nice bonus either way.

Concentrating, I focused my mind on what I wanted the Bio-Circuit to accomplish as I activated Self-Creation.

Suddenly a short stabbing pain came from my brain, which caused me to hold my head in pain, though I gritted my teeth and forced my jaws to stay closed as quiet grunts of pain slipped through my teeth.

The pain did not last long, though when it subsided a few moments later, every cell in my body suddenly felt as if an electric current ran through it, causing my muscles to tense and spasm uncontrollably.

It was unpleasant to the extreme, feeling like a thousand tasers had just found their way under my skin and directly shocked my organs into a disorganized mess.

And while it felt like hours had passed while I was in agony, when I finally managed to open my eyes again and raise my head from my curled-up position on the floor, I saw that the minute hand on the small clock I had taken with me into the bathroom, but left outside the walk-in-shower, had barely passed the two-minute mark.

My limbs still trembling, I pushed myself back up and leaned against the shower wall, taking a few minutes to refocus.

I had hoped that the pain wouldn't be so intense this time, but that hope had just died a rather swift death. Still, building up a tolerance to pain didn't seem like a waste of time, considering that I wasn't planning to shy away from fights and battles.

Feeling much better after a short pause, I quickly dragged my mind back into a focused state as I was not yet done with my 'upgrades'.

Once again calling onto the power bestowed to me by my nameless benefactor, I focused on what I wanted to achieve next as I activated Self-Creation again, to grant myself another power. This time though in comparison to before the pain was neither short nor bearable.

From one moment to the other, my body convulsed uncontrollably as I felt an alternating pulling and pushing sensation. My bones, muscles, tendons, my very flesh felt as if it would crumble the next moment under the unnatural pressure invading my body.

My nerve endings were scorched and torn apart, rebuilding themselves and branching out further in a never-ending cycle. Even my eyes felt as if someone was boiling them inside my skull, shocks and painful stabbing sensations running down my spine constantly.

Blood, sweat, and different kinds of impurities were also constantly forced out of my body during the transformation of my physical body.

I was familiar with pain after so many uses of Self-Creation, but as my whole world slowly deconstructed itself until I was left with nothing but pure suffering, even I could do nothing but try to cry and roar in utter agony, as I tried to find an outlet for my pain.

Though things weren't so easy, as I had already lost any control of my body during the process, which meant I could do nothing but suffer while basically being locked in my own head.

Most would not understand what that meant, but for me in this moment of pure agony, not being able to even cry out was true hell. Prisoner in my own body, tortured to the limits of what I felt my mind could endure, and I couldn't even move a single muscle.

Worse yet, as my whole body was in the process of adapting to a new power, transforming to suit its criteria, which certainly included my central nervous system as well as all my sensory organs, I could neither hear, see, or smell anything.

My sense of touch wasn't completely paralyzed, though that hardly mattered as all I could feel was pain, the transformation making my skin hypersensitive.

I wasn't a particularly claustrophobic person, but at this moment I definitely felt like one, as terror surged in my heart, threatening to consume my sanity. I hadn't expected something like this to happen while I granted myself a simple Beta-level ability, though 'simple' might be a slight understatement.

I hadn't realized that this power would cause such an extensive transformation, and now I was suffering for my carelessness, while not even being allowed to drift off into unconsciousness.