Chapter 5 - 5: Progress and Preparation

—— 7 months later, home—-

Damien-*Today on October 19, officially 7 months since I woke up in the marvel world. So far I have trained and strengthened my powers to an amazing degree. I can now connect to up to 5 devices at once while only giving simple commands. Although when fully controlling the devices i can connect to 3 at once. I have improved my intelligence and can now think in parallel for two completely different tasks. I have also relearned all topics of general learning for this world up to the high school level. Things like English, math, history, and basic sciences. I was even able to learn all programming languages made public. Now the next thing for me to do is get started on learning about hacking.. *

Waking up early this Saturday morning, Damien was excited to finally be able to start learning how to hack. But he needed a way to test what he learned. Which brings us to the reason for his excitement.

For the past half year, Damien has not only improved his powers but also his body. When sick he would use his healing factor on white blood cells, antibodies and other parts of his immune system . By doing this he is able to improve his immune system and gain immunity to the viruses. (No more common cold or strep throat) He has also been exercising every day. He does push ups, situps, squats, and lunges until he can't anymore. After which he controls his healing factor to increase the natural healing of his muscles. Then he does stretches to improve flexibility doing the same to allow for a strong but flexible body. Along with this daily morning routine he would also meditate every night before bed.

Knowing that in the marvel world there are a lot of people with abilities that can affect the memories, and read the thoughts and mind of others; he wanted to prepare himself against that. Plus having that as a way of organizing his memories and further improving his mind was a great bonus. It took him two weeks alone to be able to even reach his mindscape through meditation alone. Further modifying his mindscape and building up defences took months. He surrounded his mindscape with multiple barriers and firewalls that allow him to filter access. Of the 5 barriers and firewalls, the closer to the center of his mindscape the more advanced the firewalls and their screening abilities and the more powerful the corresponding barrier. The outer level he left blank and made into a communication zone for him and any future psychic friends. This zone allowed him to be able to communicate and share thoughts without it leaking his inner thoughts and interfering with his thought process. But still needed his permission to be able to bypass the firewalls, unless powerful enough to overpower his weakest defenses. The second level was for his surface thoughts and would be a good bluff for those who think they broke his defenses. The constructs of his mindscape begin here. Appearing to be a massive compound. This zone also stores copies of general and public information that he gathered in research that normal people would know. Also many false memories and maze-like inner structure with automated defenses, drones, and security scanning at irregular intervals. The third level is hidden in the inner part of the compound. Needing verification and access through a firewall to get through. Holding his inner thoughts and more copies of all info he researched and learned. Still all things regarded as his secrets are hidden deeper. In the fourth level hidden are the hidden memories, thoughts, and memories about his powers. All the things he learned to use them better and even the schematics of all devices he scanned. This may seem like the final level but everything in this level is also a copy. Behind a hidden bookcase in this library of info is a hidden server room where all the original copies are stored and this is the core of his mindscape. Filled with servers and 5 different computers. All looking like an upgrade of the previous one. And each has access to some information. Hidden on a seemingly worn out computer, which in all actuality is the most advanced of them all, but seemed to be less advanced and glitchy than the others is a secret file hidden in the operating system of the computer itself. This file was actually the true and complete library of everything Damien. His past life included. While others would only be able to see folders and files about his early childhood until 6 years old. This hidden file though was set to replace any and all corrupted information and memories placed or found in his mind after a thorough scan every 12 hrs.

The different levels of his mindscape and the maze of the compound to further protect from unwanted visitors alone took him 3 months to complete. Then the added defenses, drones, security systems, firewalls and barriers took 3 more months. This last month though, he has been spending his time meditating while splitting his mind to attack and defend his mindscape. Doing so to find and correct any weaknesses, crack in defense and further secure everything.

(I know this is a lot but you know this infor will be important later on. Too many marvel villains trying to brainwash and erase memories. )

Even while all this was going on, Damien didn't sacrifice any family time. Although he ended up having a lot of late nights because of it, he was thankful that his healing factor was able to rid him of the fatigue and heal his exhaustion. By spending time with his family he was able to slowly express his love of technology to his parents and show some of his intelligence. As far as they know, Damien is at the high school level while being in the 2nd grade. Being adamant about being normal and staying in the same school he was able continue hiding his genius from others outside his family. But to encourage him to continue learning about technology, Damien's parents were going to buy him a new computer. This was for doing better in school the last semester and staying a B average student. While at the same time hoping that having access to the ever expanding library of the internet would inspire him to continue with technology later on in his life. Little did they know, this computer was to be the first machine Damien would use his powers to completely upgrade and modify to his liking. Using pieces and parts from broken appliances thrown out, or computer parts bought with money made repairing things for people in the neighborhood and school.

Damien-* I can't believe I'm going to have my own computer this fast. But considering the only computers in the house are Dad's desktop for work and Mom's ŀȧptop, where she stores court case information. He's not surprised they would eventually get me my own computer so they won't have to worry about me disrupting the work files when I use their computers. To think that I've been saving up money to buy my own. While at the same time, I've continued to gather computer and machine parts from everywhere to use as a base for the modification. *

Jasmine-" Damien you need to go ahead and clean your room while your dad's on the way home. Make sure you have a clear spot on your desk for the new computer."

Hearing his mom, Damien jumps up from his bed and starts cleaning his room. He picks up all the dirty clothes off the floor and throws it in the clothes hamper. He cleared the paperwork from his desk and put it in its rightful place. He makes his bed and makes sure that everything looks nice and neat in his room. Just as he finished making his bed Damien heard his dad coming through the front door. Soon followed by the sound of footsteps on the stairs.

Jasmine- "Damien, if you want this new computer your room better be clean." She said as she walked in Damien"s room followed by Alex.

Damien-"I just finished cleaning everything Mom. Please let me help Dad connect the computer now."

Chuckling at the antics of his wife and son, Alex brings a big box to the floor in front of Damien's desk.

The three of them work together for the next ten minutes unboxing and plugging up the new desktop on Damien's desk. After which they walk through everything and even play a few games online. Only to stop an hour later for dinner.

———- Midnight, Damien's bedroom———

After thoroughly testing out the computer and scanning it with his powers while having fun with his parents, Damien now knows the limitations of the computer. Sitting in front of his desk with a box of computer parts next to him he starts using his powers to design a supercomputer using all the parts and components he gathered using his new computer as the base. All the while keeping the same outer appearance and working the same unless his powers are used to command the operating system to switch.

Damien-* Now I have to concentrate. I want a supercomputer that has super fast processing speed, 100 petabytes of memory, the ability to detect and connect to all other electronic/digital/radio transmissions, expand the range of its detection/connection, able to have a hidden operating system accessible only by my powers, and keep the original appearance it had. But with the parts I have those systems will be limited. I only have enough materials to have 50 terabytes, a connection/detection range of 30 miles, and a processing speed of 1 terabyte per 2 minutes installed. *

While Damien was imagining all of these specs for his new computer, he was using his abilities to design a computer that had all the specs he wanted. Not only that but all the parts in the box and the computer itself started floating up in front of him. Slowly the computer separated completely to its base parts and the electronics in the box broke down to their base components. Soon those parts flowed together morphing and changing the computer parts in a major way. Finally the leftover parts went back to the box and the computer slowly put itself back together.

Damien-" There. Now that that's done i now have a computer i can use to further my plans."

*Now that I have this computer I can use it as practice for my hacking by using my powers to simulate hacking the computer and at the same physically code to defend the system. I'm going to use all forms of hacking and practice the use and defense of viruses with the system as well. So let's get started…*

Damien, now having less than a year to become an experienced and super advanced hacker, now spends his nights learning and practicing all forms and methods of hacking. Because of his advanced intelligence it takes little to no effort to integrate his knowledge of programming to do so. Soon becoming able to slowly create his own virus/hacking protection software and become fluent enough to hack into less secure systems without detection. But these improvements happen over the course of several months.