Chapter Seven: Waking Up & Dipping Planet Earth
Beep!
Beep!
Beep!
Beep!
Lewis awoke to the rhythmic sound of medical equipment beeping to his heart rate, a groggy look to his right displaying his vitals.
He woke up in a room by himself, a quick, discreet mental wave of the building confirming his thoughts. He was in a facility owned by Victor Von Doom — the medical one from the movie.
[Good Morning, Master.] OMNIS' voice sounded in his soul, but Lewis ignored him.
Climbing to his feet, Lewis casually sent a discreet psychic pulse as far as he could send it, easily reaching beyond the bounds of the continent, breaching past the confines of the planet and peaking on the Blue Side of the Moon, where Lewis felt the slumbering presence of Apocalypse begin to stir at the far reaching psionic pulse — Lewis quickly withdrew the psychic wave and hid his presence from the hundreds of psychics who had felt the pulse, camouflage himself in a way that even Charles Xavier, who was actively using Cerebro during Lewis' experiment, hadn't even been able to trace back Lewis' psychic signature, let alone identify that it was Lewis of all people he had felt the psychic wave from.
'Power invites power,' Lewis thought to himself, thinking of what he remembered comic-wise of Marvel. 'I may be amongst the most powerful telepaths on the planet, but I am not nearly strong enough to contend with some of the more otherworldly powers, let alone the strongest there is. Charles Xavier isn't the strongest telepath and I am barely stronger than him. The others – Jean Grey, Wanda Maximoff and Emma Frost all do exist, too — And that's just the mutants on Earth. I haven't even reached the next tier of powers yet. I need to be careful.'
"OMNIS, I—" Lewis began, but was interrupted by the door to his room going open and in came a nurse — the very same nurse that Lewis remembers Johnny taking snowboarding in the movie when his powers had began manifesting.
"Oh. You're awake!" She immediately managed to school her reaction, but was obviously startled, as she rushed towards Lewis, checking his vitals, asking persistent questions about when he woke up? How did he feel? Has he noticed anything bizarre about himself since waking up? Has he displayed any abnormal abilities?
Lewis considered his answer, in the pico of a second.
On one hand, he could hide his abilities, like most MCs across fiction and fanfictions in similar situations. He could wait this time out, grow stronger. He could.
But will he? No. Well, at least only in part.
Lewis merely hummed, eyes scanning the television's news: It revealed coverage of the bridge incident that happened that morning apparently. 'It seems I woke up later than even them, by at least a few hours. However long I was out, the "Fantastic Four" had been found in that small window. No wonder the nurse is inquiring about my 'abilities' or 'inconsistencies','Lewis thought privately. 'I've no doubt SHIELD will be waiting on how I respond. Hell, I'm pretty sure they're already suspecting me of being Redline, what with Fury putting my file alongside Redline's Level 8 clearance. It would be suspicious if I had no powers when everyone else on the expedition developed theirs. I, personally, don't care if SHIELD figures out or knows that I'm Redline.
'As is, I am strong enough to protect myself and my own family from even S.H.E.I.L.D., and with my prototype defense droids secretly being produced in my private warehouse, soon, all my assets would be immensely protected.'
In the end, Lewis had made a decision to meet the masses halfway. Walking over to the lamp, as the nurse watched him with interest, he unscrewed the bulb. Covering it with both hands, he closed his eyes in concentration, senses reaching out to the object on a molecular level, willing the abiotic molecules to transform into biotic molecules. As he did that, he willed the ball of life energy molecules in his hands to evolve, transforming into three distinct seeds twice as big as apple seeds.
The nurse gasped at Lewis' display of power as he set the tree seeds from his pocket — all except one. This one, he willed to acceleratedly grow, causing it to grow right before the eyes, roots, bark and leaf — all into three, distinct and separate trees, all the size of a 5-foot tall, stemming from one wooden vase filled with nutrient-rich soil.
'One seed produced three trees?' the nurse gaped mentally to herself. 'Is it matter manipulation? Life generation, perhaps?'
"That answers your question, Miss Nurse?" Lewis smirked at the nurse's look of awe as she inspected the plant, fascinated by its uniqueness, murmuring as she typed her notes on her tablet.
"Transmutation, maybe?" she murmured as she typed away. "Biotic manipulation… possibly restricted to Abiokinesis as source material, perhaps… Fascinating. And you can control this at will, Lewis?"
But when she looked up, Lewis was gone. She looked around the room, but there were no signs of Lewis anywhere. He was gone.
"Huh? Teleportation?" the nurse muttered to herself, looking around the room, but not finding Lewis anywhere. "I must share my findings with Victor and SHIELD," the nurse murmured privately before rushing out.
Unbeknownst to her, Lewis had only been experimenting with his telepathy, hitting a Charles Xavier move of tricking the mind and removing his visual presence to it — He had heard her murmurings, yet he wasn't even surprised that the nurse was secretly a SHELD agent.
"I had read her mind when I had performed the psychic pulse — her and everyone within the building and surrounding area," he murmured to himself. "SHIELD is good. Not good enough to get one over on me, though. Still, I should make a list of organizations worldwide, including secret and private ones and their members. Do remind me, OMNIS, won't you?"
[Of Course, Master.]
Lewis blanched a moment at the AI's docile behavior. His head titled slightly, his facial expression taking on a suspicious appearance. "Why are you being so co-operative, OMNIS?"
[Uncertain what Master means. OMNIS Is Always Co-operative.]
"No, yeah, you are, but—" Lewis began, mind racing, "not without being bratty, which you currently aren't being.
[...].
[I Have No Idea What You Speak Of, Master.]
"OK, now I know you're hiding something. You are the combination of 3 powerful AI's and upgraded. And we're soul-bound, so I'm sure you know exactly my thought process," Lewis thought, even more suspicious. "What did you do? Tell me. Now."
[...].
"If I have to use technopathy, you'll be shut down until Christmas," Lewis threatened.
[...].
"Until Easter," Lewis increased.
[...].
"For five years," Lewis threatened.
[OMNIS may have accidentally absorbed 10 of the 13 the cosmic cloud energy samples Master procured using the EnerGenesis Spheres while studying them.]
"What?" Lewis deadpanned, controlling himself (just barely) from screaming. "YOU WHAT?!"
[If It Comforts MMaster, OMNIS Has Tracked Down A Load of Other Cosmic Clouds Radiating Similar Cosmic Energies Within The Immediate Next 170 Star Systems]
[Furthermore, OMNIS Has Seen Master's Body And Soul And Has Concluded That You Aready Have an X-Gene Active, And The Cosmic Cloud Granted You A Mutate Ability.]
[Additionally OMNIS Predicts That, If Host Absorbs At Least 12 More of These Cosmic Clouds, He'll Have The Power To Make The Mergeance With The 5 Other AI Systems He Wanted To Merge With OMNIS.]
The news gave Lewis' frustration pause. 'Just 12? And how far away are these clouds?'
[Affirmative. The Nearest One Is 5,060,286 Lightyears Away.]]
'Of course it is,' Lewis thought through gritted teeth. 'Thankfully with Captain Comet's unmatched telepathic powers, I can cover multiple galaxies worth of distances in a single jump. Sadly, that requires a full week's rest before I can use it a second time, and, unlike Adam, who had gotten the power later on, when his powers were more refined and greater in both quantity and quality, allowing him to teleport from anywhere across the universe in a single move and only required a days' rest, I am not yet that powerful. The best I can do is intergalactic teleportations between charging energies. I'll likely have to sun-dip before and during my travels, but, thankfully, I have all of Sentry's powers, not just a weaker version of his passive energy absorption ability, but the real deal.'
Lewis, teleporting to his laboratory, was met by Crystal Lanng and Chris Martin — Both of whom had been affected by the cosmic cloud. Crystal had gained the ability to integrate herself into technology and transmute abiotic matter into technology. Chris gained lightning powers, his crimson lightning could fry entire buildings, overloading even the most powerful of systems.
Though they were separate beings in their own right, they were — and always will be — extensions of Lewis in the literal sense. They shared a connection to Lewis beyond even the parent-and-child sense, a powerful psionic connection that bordered on near-cosmic in level. In fact, Lewis himself felt it when they had been knocked unconscious by the cosmic cloud. It was as if a section of his mind… No, connectants of his own being had been put to sleep.
"Boss, you are up and running," Crystal practically purred in her satisfaction, as she began running tests, doing a whole Physical health checkup, scanning Lewis from head-to-toe with her tablet which had a scanning feature, likely scanning for any irregularities and any fundamental changes in DNA. "Good. From what my scans have found, you have minimal molecular reconstruction by way of the cosmic cloud. Aside from the activation of a second X-Gene within your DNA, there were hardly any alterations to the overall structure of your molecular make-up. I have, however, taken note of a vast increase in your body's natural plasma manifestation…Strange, I wonder... Permission to light you on fire, Boss?"
"Yeah, sure, permission granted," Lewis says, waving a hand dismissively before his eyes widened at what he just heard. "Wait, what?"
However, upon turning to her, Lewis saw her arm turn into a flamethrower and, before he could protest, he was bathed in a torrent of highly pressured flames as the clothes from his back were immediately turned to ash. But, as Lewis felt the flames rippling across his skin, he noticed he was completely fine. Unhurt....And as the torrent died off he noticed he was completely unharmed, the remaining flames licking at his skin like fish licking dead skin of feet in a river.
"Dammit, Crys. You could've at least let me change into fireproof clothes before you did that, you know.," Lewis muttered, sighing at the focussed look on the mad nurse. 'She won't let this go until she figures everything out.'
Crystal merely ignored Lewis, scanning his body and the flames still licking his skin despite it being a minute past her flamethrower's assault. "Strange….Yes. So that is what is occurring. Fascinating. I wonder… Boss, request to electrify you?!"
"Request granted," Lewis began before wanting to hit his own forehead at his slip-up. "Wa—–!"
Crystal tasered Lewis with a high-powered, highly concentrant finger-laser from her middle finger. Despite having been hit with enough electricity to power a large car (i.e; 32 kilowatts), Lewis only felt a sharp stinging before it vanished, followed by a dulling feeling..
"It is as I thought." Crystal scanned over her tablet's findings, tapping away on the device and the data on it. "Interesting. Very interesting."
"Care to share with the rest of the class, your findings, sister?" Chris snarked, amused by his "sister's" distracted obsession. "Not all of us are mind readers, you know."
"Technically we are all mind readers, brother. You just suck at the art," Crystal grinned, impishly, earning a raised brow from Chris. "Nonetheless, at last, I have concluded that your body, while having the base powers of Sentry's energy manipulation, leans instinctively towards converting energy to plasma due to the power the cosmic cloud gifted you: Plasma Manipulation, so ionized matter (fire, lightning, solar energy, etc.)."
"I have plasma manipulation?" Lewis noted, impressed. "Interesting. I'll have to train it until its on-par with my psionic abilities. Now, you said I had a second X-Gene activated? What was the first, OMNIS?"
[Your First X-Gene Ability. Its An Alpha Class Ability, Passive By Nature — Ability Sense And Identification, Regardless Of Species, X-Gene Or Just Ordinary Superpowers. Anyone Below Divine Power Is Subjectable To Your Detection.]
"I had this overpowered ability from the getgo? Seriously? Wait…That must've been how I've so easily been able to sense other, more powerful telepaths' presence before, despite being much weaker," Lewis thought, in realization. "I must've mentally linked it to my telepathy, restricting it to just that. I'll have to work on that eventually, no doubt."
"The second ability seems to be an amplification ability at the Omega level," Crystal began, tapping away at a tablet. "From what I can scan, you have no upper limit to how much you can amplify someone aside from beings of divine origins. That, and it seems to be a randomly chosen amplification factor and is restricted to once per person."
'That is broken. To have someone to experiment this on, though…,' Lewis thought. 'I wonder…'.
Just as he turned to Chris, intending to make him his lab rat to test it on, Lucas teleported before Lewis, breathing raggedly, his suit torn in multiple places. "B-boss…" he collapsed to his knees.
"Hmm…," Lewis murmured, quickly stauntering over and getting his clone up and to his feet. "What happened?! Who did this to you?"
"K-Kingpin and the Hand ambushed me mid-patrols," Lucas struggled out, downing water given to him by Chris while Crystal quickly, efficiently ran diagnostics on his injuries. "They hired Psylocke and got Elektra to join in. I was doing great until those two arrived. They were both psychics and both of them knew how to work together quite well with their abilities…and I was…distracted…",
Lucas went red at the thought of his wandering eyes that got him in this situation. 'It was a mistake that anyone could've made. One that any man definitely would've. Not my fault they were in the female equivalent of speedos!'
Lewis began healing Lucas, golden light radiating from his hand unto the other man's injuries, sealing them quickly, while he explained what occurred. Lewis was surprised to learn that Lady Deathstrike had also made an appearance. The trio of female assassins, the Kingpin and the enigmatic Hand organization that secretly had its claws of influence across the world, including the world's crime syndicate, influencing centuries' worth of global events for the last millennia.
"Apparently, they are fed up with the Redline's interference…," murmured Lewis, already concocting a scheme. Making a cut to form on his arm, he ordered Lucas to drink. "It'll make you stronger."
Lucas didn't even hesitate, grasping the arm, he dove mouth first, slurping the blood down his throat. As Lewis pulled back his arm, he watched Lucas' aura triple before quadrupling its base power. "Four times power boosts, huh? OMNIS, inject 1 of the 3 remaining EnerGnesis Spheres into Lucas and observe the reaction."
A robotic nano-tech tendril descended from the ceiling, its tip a needle; injecting Lucas with a metallic syringe the size of a baseball bat, straight to the chest, its glass containing golden sparks of cosmic energy, as it released itself into Lucas' being.
Instantly, Lucas passed out, and Lewis teleported him to his couch in his private ward, ordering OMNIS to observe Lucas, and upon waking up, to relay a series of orders to him and the fourth clone — the one Lewis made before going into space for the cosmic cloud disaster.
This clone was an exact replica to Lewis. Lewis named him "Luke Blake" but, in the public eye, however, he was Lewis' doppelganger — a brilliant scientist and newly discovered mutate.
[Luke Blake Reference Image]:
After ensuring events plans were being turned into action and that his preparations were perfect, Lewis suited up, in a suit he had OMNIS prepare weeks prior, made to Lewis' likeness and personification, specific to his body type, dna structure and adaptive to his abilities.
[Lewis' suit Reference Image]:
He even created a blaster similar to Adam Blake had, only Lewis' was a futuristic-looking, Kinetic-plasma blaster, silver chrome in color, with crimson-emerald energy lighting it up in certain places.
[Blaster Reference Image]:
As Lewis took one last look at Lucas, waking up with even more extraordinary speed and Luke being injected with 1 of the remaining 2 cosmic cloud serums after Lewis had managed to amplify the guy's power by a factor of three, he watched on as the new clone went unconscious from the injection, similar to Lucas, all the while, Crystal ran diagnostics.
"You intend to leave?" Chris' rough voice sounded from the other side of the room. Lewis said nothing, his silence answer enough already. "Let me come with you. I will prot—."
"Negative Christopher. You're needed here. You will primarily protect the others in my absence," Lewis commanded, cutting off the young man. "I sense… the future to be uncertain. My presence on Earth has garnered eyes that would seek to tear down everything I've built here. I need you to promise me that you'll protect them. Promise me."
Chris, serious as ever, placed his right hand onto his puffed out chest, right over the heart as he gave Lewis a solemnly swear: "You have my word. Our family will be safe, I promise you this. They will be protected in your absence."
Nodding his approval, Lewis dismissed his guard after shaking grasping hands. As Chris left, Lewis gave OMNIS a series of orders, receiving himself a few quite excellent news: The first batch of defense droids he had architectured to be able to charge using electricity, thermal energy, or even solar energy, while being also capable of releasing bolts of all 3 types of energies for defense and turn into drones for fast travel — The first batch of 30 of these droids were ready to be deployed and Lewis couldn't have been happier.
Lewis called them "E.D.G.E-1" defense droids, short for "Energy Defense Guardian Entity, Mark 1." They were completely under his control, through OMNIS, with bullet proof, fireproof durability, enhanced human level speed (in base form), thermal, solar, electric, and kinetic energy lifting, flight and incredible physical strengths. They even had Stealth Mode, which gave them invisibility from both sight and all forms of Earth detections. They were powered by OMNIS who was powered by Lewis.
[E.D.G.E-1 Defense Droids Reference Images]:
'They will be the first of many marks, no doubt, but they are more than durable enough to protect my assets in my absence,' Lewis thought as 30 of those drones flocked into the skies in drooves of ten, going in different directions. "As for Kingpin and The Hand's interference, I'll leave that to Luke and Lucas to deal with. I reckon Luke should already be planning on assembling the heroes of Hell's Kitchen a few weeks sooner than anticipated in the show, Defenders. Perhaps he should reach out to Rand Enterprises for a proper partnership? The tree seeds I developed will definitely make bank, but I'll let Luke cover that, too.'
Lewis picked up a pair of futuristic-looking, silver pair of shades, the black lens tinted crimson.
"Shades I designed for space travel. I'm using them sooner than I anticipated, but, with them, OMNIS would be with me in more ways than being soul-bound and using soul energy to access certain ai functions without them," Lewis muttered to himself. "They also allow me to map out the universe via the galaxies I fly through."
[A,I Shades Visualizer:]
'Plus,' Lewis thought, donning them. 'I look fresh with them on.'
With everything done, Lewis had one final look at Lucas, Luke, Crystal and Chris. 'I leave this to you four. Good luck. Don't mess it up,' he mentally told them before instantly teleporting into the Sun, intent on sun-dipping before beginning on his space-faring journey…