CH 3: Losing them Again

Marcus couldn't believe what he heard, it was not to happen again, he never thought it would happen again.

Tears dripped down his face and Marcus hurriedly made his way out of his gym laboratory and ran out of the mansion. He ordered the driver to drive him to the Metro General Hospital in New York.

Marcus couldn't sit still, all the way he was praying for them to be saved, he called out for the voice that gave him powers, hoping it would hear his pleas but he didn't hear anything back, nobody responded.

After some time, Marcus reached the hospital, he stepped out of the car and ran towards the receptionist, he hurriedly asked for the room his parents were in. After checking, the receptionist told Marcus that his parents were currently in the ER which was on the second floor.

He made his way up to the second floor and ran towards the ER, his parents were still in and Marcus had to wait for the doctors to come out.

After five grueling hours passed, the ER door finally opened and a few doctors came out. Marcus, who was waiting there, hurriedly stood up.

"Doctor, are they safe?" That was the only thing going inside Marcus' head.

"How are you related to the patients, kid?" The doctor said as he pulled down his mask.

"I am their son. Doctor, are they ok?"

The doctor's face turned gloomy but he looked toward Marcus and said, "I am sorry to say this son, we did our best, but unfortunately, we couldn't save your parents."

A bomb went off inside Marcus' head, and the memories he had built with his parents in the last 15 years came crumbling down. His legs gave up as he fell to the ground.

All the memories, of how his parents cared for him and especially the motherly love he got in this life which he never did in his previous one, flashed one by one. Tears streamed off his face as Marcus could not do anything but watch his parents' bodies get escorted out of the ER.

**********

A few days passed since Marcus said his farewell to his parents. And in the meantime, the police commissioner personally came to the Hunt mansion to offer his condolences and inform him about the truck driver who caused the accident his parents.

The incident had become big news with many celebrities giving their condolences to Marcus' parents.

The driver was Jailed for 7 years on DUI and fined $50,000. Marcus was furious at the guy but he chose to abide by his morals as the driver got what he deserved.

Fortunately, Marcus' family had an old trusted Butler named Albert, he was there from the time when Marcus' father, Thomas, was just a child. And has been a pillar for the family through thick and thin.

So Albert was chosen as a trustee for Marcus' inheritance till he came of age.

After being depressed for a few weeks, Marcus with Albert's help finally got back to normal. But he knew, he couldn't live his life normally anymore, nor could he trust any god to help him even in a universe where gods were real and walked among humans.

Marcus had decided that he would become a person that nobody dared to ignore and would never be in the same vulnerable situation again.

So without thinking much, Marcus decided to start working on a new project, A project which would be the first step in an exciting journey. But before that, he decided to make a timeline, based on the things he knew about this universe.

"The current year is 2002, so at least 6 years until Tony becomes Iron Man, but Reed Richards is also in this universe, so if I were to trust the movies, he would get his powers in 2 years. And Hulk, a year after that..."

After some time racking his brain, Marcus finally completed his rough timeline graph.

"So Mutants exist in this universe and are hated. X-Men and Mutant Brotherhood are both active organizations. And Wade Wilson is still a normal mercenary who hangs out in a bar for Mercenaries."

Marcus gave up on trying to figure out this world because it was an amalgamation of many different universes. Instead, he decided to focus on the things he could benefit from.

"I should start by working on that Armor that I've been holding out for a long time. That would be good enough to strike a deal with the military. And that would give me the much-needed boost to start my own company."

Marcus dived back into his research, he had the blueprint ready, he just needed to acquire the materials for which he asked for Albert's help.

The items were to be delivered the next day, in the meantime, Marcus had finally completed his work on a simple virtual assistant which he named No.1

No.1 could be compared to Siri or Alexa from Marcus' past life. Although it was not intelligent on its own, it was able to do the work commanded to it, which was a great help to Marcus in shortening his work on the computer.

The materials were delivered the next day, while Marcus was still cooped up in his laboratory. Albert would come in from time to time to provide snacks and juices, but Marcus didn't leave his lab till five days later.

That was mainly because all the related facilities were either in his lab or were provided by Albert.

After five days, Marcus had finally completed the prototype and he decided to call it "M.U.S.H.A(Metallic Uniframe Super Hybrid Armor) ". The Armor was composed of full-body, multi-layered ballistic fiber, a redesign of kevlar which was an experimental product made by Marcus, it was thinner per layer than a normal Kevlar but was far stronger in stopping bullets and projectiles.

But the main perk of the Armor was the exoskeleton. The exoskeleton helped negate the weight of Armor even when an extra load was added or carried by the wearer and most importantly, it negated the impact of the bullets hitting the front or back plate which was connected to the exoskeleton. Another function of the exoskeleton was the boost it provided to the wearer's strength and agility.

An average person wearing the Armor could provide results compared to some of the peak athletes in their prime.

A single punch was measured to be comparable to a professional boxer because of its sophisticated design heavily reducing external forces around it making the punch faster and stronger. Safe to say, Marcus was more than satisfied with the Armor, even though it wasn't the best he could do.

The helmet had internal Kevlar padding and a 360° thermal and infrared. The outer part of the helmet was encased in Nickel-Titanium(Nitinol in future) alloy to provide added protection to the wearer from snipers.

The exoskeleton also consisted of the same alloy, all painted in non-shiny coatings to reflect the least light possible, a feature that would be a heavy bonus for special forces in covert missions.

The helmet was able to switch between the partial cover and full cover mode, according to the wearer's needs. where the Nitinol layers covered even the front part of the face, leaving no gaps, and the camera could be used to show the outside situation on the hud which added extra protection.

Marcus had decided to show this prototype to the military and get them to sign a contract. Because getting the military as a supporter was the best thing for Marcus who didn't have as big of an empire as Stark industries. Marcus knew that his Armor would be used in wars but he didn't have a problem with that as long as he got the military as his backer.

The only thing left was to test the prototype and contact the military, fortunately contacting the military was easier than one could've thought.

Marcus' father had some connections to the military General Thaddeus E. Thunderbolt Ross, thanks to his father a.k.a Marcus' grandfather as they both served at the same time in the military and long time friends. Yeah, the same guy who wanted to capture Hulk to experiment on him and later became Red Hulk himself in the comics.

Now the only thing left was testing the armor. Marcus had already checked the workings of the internal systems, including the camera, and the exoskeleton.

Now the only thing left to test was the defensive capabilities and if the Armor could truly hold up to its name. The guns were easy to get hold of, all in Albert's name and the test area was the mansion's backyard.

"Young Master, here are the guns you ordered. Although, I don't suppose you know how to use these." Albert said to Marcus, who was running around and jumping in the MUSHA Armor.

Seeing Marcus behaving like a kid got a new toy Albert had a smile on his face ever since the Thomas couple died Marcus barely showed any emotions and now seeing him jumping up and down like a kid he was glad he didn't lose his kid self.

"Oh, Albert! Yeah, you're right. I dunno how to use these, never got the chance to learn them y'know. I guess even a genius can't know everything, am I right?" Marcus joked casually.

"Oh well, you can always learn how to use them. A genius can't know it all but he sure can learn it all. Come, I will teach you, it's not that hard. An average person can get the basics in less than an hour, and you are far from average." Albert said to Marcus as he picked up a Glock laying on the table, systematically loading the magazine and cocking the gun.

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A/N: The armor is more like a full-blown suit which has amazing defense capabilities and force-resistant functions which makes any activities they do become far easier than normal people as the opposing forces that act on them are far less effective because of the exoskeleton.

For example, Like how Tony in iron man 1 survived falling from the sky after getting hit by a missile. The armor can take it sure but his body can't bear the impact. Here his exoskeleton comes in it negates forces that go against him like the air force it heavily acts against him while he is flying but because of his exoskeleton, it gets reduced on him making him faster in flight and many more.

But the Armor isn't as strong as Iron Man's.