Chapter 10: No time to waste

Chapter 10: No time to waste

Hello! Thank you for reading my fan-fiction, I hope you are enjoying it so far! I haven't mentioned it here on FF but I have started a method of supporting me on a commonly used website that this website doesn't like. For those who would like to contribute just look up my username! Currently we are experimenting with an "Inspiration File" which is a collection of images that I used as inspiration or to help visualize what I'm writing each chapter. While every chapter will be different they will contain things like what an object might look like (before and after combining them with things,) color samples, location inspiration, OC character design inspiration and anything else I've used to help write! If this sound interesting to you then stop by and show your support! Otherwise I hope you enjoy the new chapter!

The next day I spent the morning and early afternoon doing nothing but watching the news stories unfold. I was sore from digging through rubble, but mostly I was just shell shocked. My life had changed so much, spun on its head and thrown into the thick of a reality that was already proving to be very dangerous. I was lost in a fog.

The previous night continuously flashed through my head the entire day. I had stood up to the Abomination, someone who could chuck cars and punch through steel plating. My armor had a chance of blocking bullets but there was no way my insides would have survived getting punched by the Abomination. Or the Hulk for that matter. Looking back on it I was satisfied with my actions, but terrified at what I had done. I had put an arrow through someone's skull, without a second thought. Who knows if what I knew about the Abomination was true, who knows if he was as big of a threat as I thought he would be.

"You did the right thing." Ema said, going through news reports about a different incident with the Hulk. "Reports are saying he killed twenty-eight people last night. He needed to be stopped."

"I don't disagree." I assured her, absentmindedly shuffling the Deck. "I'm just not happy about how easy it was for me to kill him. I didn't even hesitate."

"This doesn't strike me as easy Carson." She countered, floating over to me. "You feel remorse, guilt, but you knew it needed to be done."

I eventually nod, taking a drink before carding the empty beer bottle and tearing it. With a sigh I laid back on the couch, content to spend the day unwinding, slowly coming to terms with what I had done. Eventually the conversation turned to what we would do next.nove(l)bi(n.)com

"We are definitely on General Ross's radar now." I lamented, happy for even a slightly different topic. "Especially since he is going to assume I have the Abominations corpse, even with the cellphone footage of me tearing the card."

"What does that mean for us?"

"It means that we need to move quickly. My identity might still be a secret but eventually it's going to come out. This reality doesn't seem to care about secret identities very much, it certainly doesn't follow the normal superhero rules."

"There aren't many super heroes to compare with." Ema pointed out.

"It doesn't matter honestly. Now that I'm on the board, eventually someone is going to put pressure on me. I guarantee if Hydra still exists they are looking into me, as is Shield, General Ross, really anyone who is anyone is wondering what I am and how I'm doing this stuff. Hell I bet you Wakanda is looking into me to figure out if I'm using their technology."

"While I'm sure some of that is true, you shouldn't let that make you paranoid."

"I'm not." I stayed simply. "I know they are and I'm not going to freak out. At least not externally. No, we need to act quickly, go through another few build cycles and find someone who is willing to protect us from all those people."

"That's quite the turn around from your original opinions."

"I think with one or two more build cycles we will be a real force to be reckoned with, especially if we don't hold back the money we still have. How much do we have left anyway?"

"One thousand one hundred and fifteen dollars. Not counting the change."

"That's more than I thought" I admitted, starting to chew my lip as I thought. "Okay, here is the plan. I'm going to use some of that money to try an idea I've been bouncing around since I made the martial arts ring."

Ema paused and focused on me, part of her frame spinning as she waited for me to continue. After organizing my thoughts a bit I began explaining my theory.

"So I'm pretty sure the ability to wear these rings and tap into the knowledge they contain is partly because the rings are so strongly about being worn." I explained, spinning my class ring on my finger. "But my martial arts and movement ring has some traces of other stuff. I think the reason I seem to be adapting and changing with the martial arts ring is because my class ring had a bit of learning concepts, which interacted positively with the learning in the book."

"I suppose that makes sense. As much as anything to do with your cards does."

"Exactly. " I added before continuing. "But besides that, what I think this also means is that if I create an object whose purpose it is to make me stronger, or faster and I combine it with a ring"

"Then putting on the ring will affect you like that object would."

"Exactly!"

"Well it follows all of the rules we have found so far." She admitted.

"So far." I repeated with a lopsided grin.

It was true that there were probably things about the cards we hadn't discovered yet. I had been doing my best to think creatively, and I could feel myself getting better and better at thinking in terms of what my cards were capable of, but it would still take time. For now, I had an experiment to run.

"Do me a favor and stay here Ema? Keep an eye on the news, let me know if anything pops up. It's a poor cover for actual intelligence resources but it's gonna be all the warning we get if someone manages to do some facial recognition or if Hydra has a pocket psychic or something."

Ema turned to me but I cut her off before she could say anything.

"Yeah I know, I need to be careful not to slip into paranoia. I'll be careful"

She nodded, turning her frame back to the laptop. I quickly threw on my jacket and headed out into the city. Time for another shopping spree.

- A few hours later -

By the time I got back to the apartment it was getting dark and I had spent another six hundred dollars. With only a few bags to show for it.

"I'm back." I called out wearily. "I don't know how rich people do it, spending so much money like this hurts my soul.."

"But you were able to get everything that you needed, correct?" Ema asked, floating into the kitchen, scanning the bags as I walked.

"I think so. I kind of struggled on this one to be honest."

"How so?"

"How How fast was I going?" I asked Ema, glancing up.

"You were hitting twenty-four miles per hour in the last few seconds."

"Holy shit." I said softly, stunned at her statement. "That's incredible."

"It is, especially since it's likely that number will go up." Ema pointed out, continuing when she saw my confusion. "The object you made isn't making your muscles better or enhancing your oxygen intake. As far as I could tell there was nothing different. And yet you ran like an Olympic athlete. That cuff is simply a flat increase to your speed and endurance. Imagine how fast someone who was actually in shape would be."

"And since my Kung Fu ring is already helping me become more fit"

I trailed off as my thoughts wandered, my breathing slowly normalizing as I rested.

"We need to prioritize another few sets of accessories. Something to increase my strength, maybe my intelligence? Not sure I'm comfortable with that one Maybe I should do some research online for some ideas. I bet a D&D manual would be full of things for us to try. As soon as we get some more cash. I think we should make plans to visit that address we found, the one further in state. I have a feeling it's worth checking out and we need to make more of these rings."

"...and if it's not worth checking out?" Ema asked through the phone.

"Then we will spend a week trying to figure out who is our best option to go to for protection while going out at night to hopefully find more resources." I said after a slow pause. "For now let's just set that aside. I have one last thing to test."

I stood up and shook off the last bit of fatigue from my limbs. I could still feel it after the distance I had ran and sprinted, but it was already dull, like day-old fatigue instead of a few minutes.

"Do you know what the effect is?"

"Kinda?" I answered. "It's going to be an increase in speed and stamina, but I'm having a hard time figuring out how much."

I started jogging again, pushing up to steady speed before mentally preparing myself.

"Boost!"

It felt like lightning in my veins, like a blast of pure energy. Suddenly it felt like I was going slow, like even my fast jog was nothing. I pushed faster, shifting to a dead sprint. Faster and faster, gliding across the sidewalk like a rush of wind and momentum. Every movement felt clean, precise, like I had minutes to decide where my feet needed to be, like-

The feeling faded in a moment, an intense shot of exhaustion pushing through me. I tried to slow down, but the sudden and unexpected spike deadened my muscles. I tripped over my own feet and slid across the ground, tumbling before slamming into a light post. I could feel my armor take the brunt of it, though the impact proved that while my armor was tough it didn't do shit against inertia. I could feel the impact almost reverberate in my body.

"CARSON! Are you okay?" Ema called through the earpiece. "Carson!"

"I'm I'm okay." I managed to groan, sitting up and leaning against the lamp post. "That that sucked."

"What happened?"

"There was backlash for using the boost it really caught me off guard."

In truth it had snuck up on me as I had been reveling in the speed I was running and the feeling of energy flowing through me. Now though I could feel the fatigue in all of my limbs, a heavy exhaustion that was only now slowly fading, much slower than the previous fatigue. It felt like I had sprinted further than my original speed test, then kept going.

"Backlash? That's never happened before." Ema commented as she scanned my body. "You're alright by the way, nothing is broken. You're going to be very sore and very bruised tomorrow though."

"Yeah, I can feel it. I'm pretty sure I can compensate, it just snuck up on me." I assured her. "How fast was I going?"

"In the last moment before you stumbled you were going thirty seven miles per hour."

"Holy hell we really need to prioritize more accessories."

I slowly stood with a groan, leaning on the lamp post before moving to a nearby staircase. I roll up my sleeve and pull up my armor, looking at the fitness watch. The digital screen had three blinking lighting bolts, one of them just an outline. I pushed down my sleeve and sighed.

"The cuff has three charges, I think it will recharge after 24 hours."

"I'm more interested in the backlash Carson! What if any more of your creations are hiding some sort of repercussion for using them?"

I shook my head, pulling the cuff into my deck without looking, summoning the card to my hand. I felt the exhaustion, which was fading a few moments ago, stop and wash over me again.

"Note to self, don't take the cuff off before exhaustion fades." I said with a groan before focusing on the card.

I put it back on after a moment, biting back a sigh of relief. The concepts were extremely complex, I had completely missed them behind the more prominent ones. Even now I could barely feel them.

"I think that there were several concepts that merged together. Side effects from caffeine and the side effects from taking too much vitamins, the electricity from the capacitors and from the watch."

I stood and tested my legs, running through some simple and easy stretches to see if anything pulled or ached.

"I think we found the downside to layering more complicated objects though. The randomness isn't always just weird quirks, sometimes it's limitations and costs for use."

"Be more careful in the future." Ema urged.

I looked up at the sky, spotting a blink of green. I wave and nod, smiling as I finish my stretches.

"I will Ema." I agree, smirking before looking up and down the street. "Now... you wouldn't happen to know how to get home would you?"