Chapter 025 – Clean Up

[2009 – June]

The created portal directly lead to the bathroom of my old apartment, but I didn't step through it immediately.

Instead, I took my time, and for the next half an hour I created and vanished the portal dozens of times to get more familiar with the process and make sure that the portal was stable.

Finally assured that all was working as it should, I left a message on the Professor's phone, notifying him that I would go out, though I didn't tell him where I planned to go as that was none of his business.

Afterwards, I moved through the portal and appeared in the bathroom of 'my' former apartment. Vanishing the portal was easy enough, as I just had to will it to happen or lose my focus.

The first thing I did was grab a few big sports bags and filled them with my clothes, before opening a portal back to the mansion and just throwing them through it on my bed. Next were my shoes, which I delivered to my new place the same way.

My schoolbooks and other important documents went next, though I wasn't yet sure if I even wanted to attend the coming school year. I also moved all the other books I had, as I enjoyed reading in my free time, and throwing away books just felt wrong.

Next, I had to take care of all the useless stuff and decoration, and as I wasn't a very sentimental person when it came to such things, I planned to throw them all away.

I didn't really have any boxes, so I just stuffed everything that was left into big plastic bags, before concentrating for a moment and opening up a portal to the dumpster in a nearby alley.

Quickly throwing the bags through the portal into the dumpster, I vanished it again.

And with that, I was pretty much done cleaning up the place, and thanks to the portals it didn't even take more than an hour.

Suddenly though I heard a knock on the door.

Without hesitation, I formed a shield around myself, as I slowly approached the door and gave a look through the peephole. What I saw surprised me greatly, as I had no idea what the Black Widow was doing standing outside my door.

Most important though, I had no plans to find out, so I simply placed a barrier around the door to prevent anyone from entering and created a portal back to the mansion.

That bit of multitasking wasn't an easy feat, as it took nearly double the amount of time to open the portal than it had before, while the knocking grew more impatient and I could hear Natasha call out from the other side several times.

So when the portal was finally finished, I jumped through without hesitation and closed it directly.

I had no intention to come in contact with SHIELD anytime soon after all, at least not before I felt that I had the ability to protect myself to an extent.

…

Having just finished a mission, Natasha was just passing through New York when she received instructions to make contact with some suspected mutant-teen, and that on her free day no less.

Well, spies never really had 'free days', but she had hoped to be able to relax some more, maybe visit a spa or even take a bath in the hotel she was currently staying in, instead of seducing some kid to recruit him into SHIELD.

Using her body for her work was nothing new and the target was an attractive young man, but still, Natasha would much rather just read a book or do something relaxing like that.

To be honest though, she wasn't very good at the whole 'relaxing'-thing, but she tried anyway.

So when she finally arrived before the apartment door after letting herself into the building and knocked on the door, Natasha just wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.

It didn't help her patience when nobody opened after several knocks and calls, even though the intel was clear on the target being present.

Sensing that something was wrong, Natasha quickly picked the lock, before pulling out her gun and stepping into the apartment.

In the end, she found nothing, though she noticed that it had been cleaned out completely, leaving nothing more than the furniture and some old sheets.

Sighing to herself, Natasha knew it would be a few hours before she could get her well-deserved rest, as she dialed the Director's number to inform him of the situation.

…

Back in the mansion, Elijah took some time to put away his clothes, books, and documents, while being relieved that he managed to avoid the feisty SHIELD-Agent and had taken care of the apartment.

From now on, he could fully focus on developing his abilities and with that in mind, he left the room and directly went to the gym.

…

Picking out another set of workout clothes, as one set simply wasn't enough, I changed into them and after greeting the silver-haired speedster, started my training according to the plan I had made the day before.

It was a few hours into my training that I realised how great my decision to grant myself peak human stamina had been.

It allowed me to train for extended periods of time, as the regeneration of my physical energy was greatly enhanced. My metabolism as a whole seemed to have been enhanced and my muscles didn't fatigue so fast anymore.

The sports drinks and energy bars I had for lunch, had been turned into readily available energy that I directly used to fuel my workout. Soldiering through the burning muscle pain wasn't made easier though, but I gritted my teeth and forced myself to go on.

It was around one o'clock that Jean showed up at the gym, looking incredibly sexy as she wore black skin-tight leggings and a long-sleeved dark-red shirt that showed off her well-toned midriff. Her hair still tied in a long ponytail, she approached me with a small smile and rosy cheeks, as my eyes wandered over her delicious curves.

Dropping the dumbbells next to the weight bench, I grabbed a nearby towel and wiped the sweat off my face, before stepping close to her and stealing a gentle kiss from her soft lips without giving her the chance to say anything.

Breaking the kiss, I moved back a half-a-step and asked: "What brings you here?"

"I- … Well … Pietro mentioned at lunch that you were working out all morning and didn't plan to take a break for lunch, so I thought I should bring you something to eat.", Jean stammered, before refocusing herself and answering in a subdued voice, holding up a lunch bag for me.

Taking the bag from her hand, I gave her another kiss, while her hands came to rest on the sweaty shirt I was wearing. Though she didn't seem to care as she deepened the kiss and leaned closer to me.

"Thanks.", I said after our lips parted again, before I asked, "Wanna go sit down over there and tell me about your morning?"

A beautiful smile spread on her lips, as she replied with a short: "I'd love to."

…

After taking an hour-long break with Jean and eating the sandwich she had brought me, I went back to training, as did she.

Another three hours of grueling training later, I knew I couldn't go on anymore, the muscles in my whole body aching greatly.

Jean had also left an hour ago and went to a nearby training room to train her telekinesis.

Dragging my tired body into the changing room, I couldn't wait to get into some fresh clothes.

Stripping off the drenched clothing after a hard workout wasn't something I particularly enjoyed and even less I enjoyed the following shower, where I alternated the temperature between cold and hot to maximize the recovery effect it had on my muscles.

Though thanks to the showering utensils I had brought with me, I could enjoy a thorough backrub, which was always nice.

Drying myself off and putting on some new clothes, I still felt pretty beat, which was no surprise considering the lengthy workout I had just been through.

I knew I had gone over the limit my body could take currently, but at this point, I needed to make some quick progress to grant myself abilities that would help with long-term growth. Aching muscles and cramps were a small price to pay for all that.

A quick look into my reserves showed me that it was worth it already, as they had filled up more than a fourth of the Epsilon-level. Considering that it would normally take several days to reach that level, I knew that I had to keep at it.

Either way, I had to get used to working out, as I knew that hard work was imperative to reach great heights.

The earlier I adjusted to that, the better.