Zeroth's defeat came with a few gifts.
Nathaniel thought to himself as he stared at the new additions to his move set.
He was currently at Arkham's Works, standing in one of the facility's testing chambers. The reinforced walls around him had already seen enough punishment to make the engineers nervous.
A ball of spinning wind rested in his palm.
Nathaniel's eyes widened.
The current twisted around his fingers, obediently circling his hand before spiraling upward like a miniature cyclone. He flexed his fingers and the wind compressed.
Then expanded.
Then compressed again.
"Okay..."
He stared at it.
"This is new."
There had been an improvement to Hell-Charge as well.
His body could now expel heat considerably faster and, more importantly, do so with much greater efficiency. He wasn't burning through his own energy nearly as recklessly as before. The heat could also be transferred directly into the Resin he produced.
That discovery had been particularly interesting.
Because his Resin wasn't quite the same anymore.
Nathaniel raised his other hand.
Cyan material seeped from his skin, initially taking the familiar appearance of his crystalline resin. It accumulated in his palm before hardening into a rough mass of translucent crystal.
He stared at it.
"Silica..."
His fingers moved.
The material reshaped itself.
The crystal compressed, became denser, and developed a rough, mineral-like texture.
He could give his Resin silica-based qualities.
Which meant...
Nathaniel slowly looked toward the testing chamber's floor.
He extended his hand.
The earth trembled.
A chunk of the floor ripped itself upward.
Nathaniel's expression went completely blank.
The rock floated in front of him.
"...I can bend earth now."
He lowered his hand slightly.
The rock dropped.
Then he lifted it again.
It rose.
Nathaniel stared at the floating stone.
"That's..."
He looked at his hand.
"...actually fucking cool."
The implications were starting to become ridiculous.
He could burn.
Bind.
Fly.
Generate and manipulate Resin.
Shape minerals.
Manipulate earth.
And if he managed to use Energize again, he could hit stupidly hard.
On top of that, his regeneration had improved to the point where he could completely restore himself once per day.
Nathaniel leaned against one of the testing tables.
At this point, there wasn't really a question anymore.
He was firmly operating around the mid-S-Rank level.
Not because any single ability made him overwhelmingly powerful, but because his arsenal had become absurdly versatile.
He could answer too many situations.
Aerial combat?
He could fly.
Close quarters?
Kinetic Muscle and Hell-Charge.
Crowd control?
Resin.
Defense?
Resin and his durability.
Mobility?
Wind.
Environmental manipulation?
Earth.
Long-range attacks?
He had several options.
And now...
Nathaniel looked at his arm.
"...Minerals."
He slowly generated more Uratsu.
Cyan Resin flowed from his skin and clumped together in his palm. The mass initially looked almost like wet crystal.
Nathaniel began manipulating it.
The material compressed.
Changed.
Dark streaks appeared throughout the cyan mass.
At first, he thought he'd simply contaminated the Resin somehow.
Then the color deepened.
The cyan disappeared.
Black overtook the material.
The Resin hardened.
A metallic rod formed in his hand.
Nathaniel blinked.
He tapped it against the table.
CLANG.
His eyebrows rose.
He turned the rod over.
"...Iron?"
He concentrated.
The material responded.
He could feel something different about it now.
The composition wasn't simply Resin anymore.
It was mineral.
More specifically...
Nathaniel looked at the black metallic surface.
"Magnetite."
He stared at it for several seconds.
That was when a thought occurred to him.
Originally, he'd assumed his new Resin properties were limited.
Sand.
Dust.
Silica.
Things that could be heated, compressed, shaped, or otherwise manipulated through the material he already understood.
But if he could turn Resin into silica...
And silica could become part of different minerals...
Then perhaps the limitation wasn't really sand.
Maybe it was simply what he understood well enough to reproduce.
Nathaniel slowly raised the magnetite rod.
"So..."
His eyes narrowed.
"If I can reproduce minerals..."
The rod dissolved back into cyan Resin.
He separated the material into several floating fragments.
Then began experimenting.
One fragment became dense.
Another became brittle.
A third developed a metallic sheen.
Nathaniel's grin slowly grew.
"...How far does this actually go?"
He looked around the testing chamber.
For the first time, Arkham's Works didn't look like a workshop.
It looked like a laboratory.
And Nathaniel had just realized he might be the experiment.
"Well."
He cracked his knuckles.
"Time to find out how broken this thing actually is."
Hours later, Valerie was making her way through Arkham's Works when she heard a faint metallic tink from one of the testing sectors.
She stopped.
Another sound followed.
Clang.
Then silence.
Valerie slowly turned toward the noise.
"...Nathaniel?"
She rounded the corner.
And stopped.
One entire section of the testing space looked like it had survived a small war.
Chunks of reinforced flooring had been ripped up. Several testing panels were blackened, while mineral deposits covered portions of the walls. Bits of shattered crystal and metal were scattered across the floor.
In the middle of it all stood Nathaniel.
His clothes were slightly dishevelled, his hair was a mess, and his right arm twitched intermittently.
He stared at his hand.
"...Interesting."
Valerie stared at the room.
Then at him.
Then back at the room.
"What happened?"
Nathaniel looked over his shoulder.
"Research."
"That doesn't answer my question."
"Successful research."
"Why is the floor missing?"
Nathaniel glanced down.
"...Unsuccessful research."
Valerie sighed as she stepped over a chunk of blackened mineral.
"What exactly were you testing?"
Nathaniel raised his twitching arm.
"Mineral synthesis."
"Uh-huh."
"Apparently I can make more than magnetite."
Valerie's expression changed slightly.
"More than magnetite?"
Nathaniel nodded.
"I started experimenting with different compositions. Density, conductivity, heat resistance, structural integrity..."
He paused.
"...And chemical instability."
Valerie's eyes narrowed.
"Chemical instability?"
Nathaniel gave her a sheepish look.
"Explosive mineral compounds."
There was a long silence.
Valerie stared at him.
Nathaniel raised both hands defensively.
"Small ones."
"Define small."
He thought about it.
"Small enough that I didn't destroy the building."
Valerie looked around.
"Your definition of small is concerning."
"I kept the yield deliberately low."
"How low?"
Nathaniel pointed toward a section of the floor.
A shallow crater had been blown into the reinforced surface.
Valerie stared at it.
"...That's your low yield?"
"That was the controlled version."
"The controlled version."
"Yeah."
Valerie looked back at him.
"And the uncontrolled version?"
Nathaniel glanced toward another section of the room.
A much smaller scorch mark sat against the floor.
"It detonated before I finished stabilizing the composition."
"And?"
"Nothing dramatic."
He shrugged.
"I was standing right next to it."
Valerie blinked.
"You were standing next to an unstable explosive?"
Nathaniel nodded.
"I'm durable."
"That isn't the point."
"I know."
He flexed his hand.
The twitching continued.
Valerie noticed it immediately.
"And your arm?"
Nathaniel looked down at it.
"Oh, that."
He rotated his wrist.
"It's just strain."
"From what?"
"Getting the synthesis right."
He looked toward the scattered mineral fragments.
"Creating the material isn't the hard part. It's forcing the energy to take the correct composition."
Nathaniel tapped his fingers together.
"I can make the base material easily enough. But when I'm trying to reproduce something more complicated, I have to force the Resin into the right structure and balance the different substances."
His arm twitched again.
"After a few hours, the augment starts getting a little... twitchy."
Valerie raised an eyebrow.
"So you're basically overworking the ability."
"Exactly."
"Then maybe you should stop."
Nathaniel looked around the wrecked testing area.
"...Probably."
Valerie gave him a look.
"Probably?"
Nathaniel smiled.
"I've got one more test."
"No."
He looked at her.
She pointed toward the destroyed section.
"Absolutely not."
Nathaniel sighed.
"Fine."
He looked down at the black mineral fragments scattered around his feet.
His expression gradually became more serious.
"Still..."
He picked up one of the surviving pieces.
The dark material slowly shifted beneath his fingers.
"I think I figured out something important."
Valerie glanced at him.
"What?"
Nathaniel watched the mineral reform into cyan Resin.
"My Resin isn't really a material anymore."
He closed his fist.
The Resin hardened.
"It's a medium."
Valerie's expression sharpened.
Nathaniel looked at his hand.
"And if that's true..."
The cyan substance slowly began changing again.
"...then I might not have unlocked mineral manipulation."
He smiled.
"I might've unlocked material manipulation."