Part 3: The Quiet City
The rest of the day passed in a haze of discovery and intense, silent dread.
Noah found his wallet on the kitchen counter. It was his face on the ID, but the name was Noah Kim, address in Hell's Kitchen. There was $340 in cash and a rent receipt for $850 a month, due in two weeks. He had a job? He searched the apartment. There was a laptop—a heavy, clunky Dell from 2005—and a notepad with a logo for a temp agency. He was a data entry clerk at a mid-size insurance firm downtown.
Perfect cover, he thought. Completely invisible.
He spent the afternoon walking the city. He didn't use the Afterimage. He just walked, trying to control the new strength in his legs so he didn't accidentally launch himself into traffic. The city was loud. Overwhelmingly so. But now he could filter it. He could hear the rats in the walls of the subway station. He could smell the exact moment a hot dog cart vendor changed the propane tank from fifty yards away. And the Ki Sense... it was like having a new eye open in the back of his head. He walked through Times Square and the sheer volume of life—the millions of little lights in the distance, the huge, bright, golden glow of a tourist who was apparently an Olympic-level athlete—was almost enough to give him a sensory overload headache.
But as the sun set and the neon signs flickered on, Noah stopped at a newsstand. The front page of the Daily Bugle had a grainy photo of a mountain range. The headline read: "THE TEN RINGS: MYTH OR MENACE? Military Denies Terror Cell Link."
Noah felt the weight of the Saiyan blood in his veins grow cold.
The Ten Rings.
Tony Stark.
He was 0.0001% of Son Goku. He could probably punch through a brick wall. He could maybe, maybe, dodge a bullet if he saw it coming. He was absolutely, categorically, not ready to fight Thanos. He wasn't even ready to fight a random Hydra goon with a stun baton.
But he had knowledge. And now he had a body that might survive long enough to use it.
The System screen flickered in his vision.
[Template Status Update: Son Goku (Restricted)]
[Synchronization Rate: 22.7%]
[New Instinct Unlocked: Battle Perception - Host will find it increasingly difficult to ignore threats to personal safety or the safety of those perceived as 'innocent' within sensory range.]
[Note: Goku's inherent nature is bleeding through. Recommend caution in public spaces.]
Noah gritted his teeth. That was the downside. The templates weren't just powers. They were personalities. He was feeling the faintest, most distant echo of Goku's brain. A desire to find something strong and punch it. An irrational, growing dislike for traffic jams because he could just run there faster. A sudden, inexplicable craving for a bowl of rice the size of his head.
He turned away from the newsstand and started walking back toward Hell's Kitchen. He had two weeks to figure out rent. He had three months until Tony Stark came back. He had a body that could shatter concrete and a brain that knew exactly where several Infinity Stones were hidden.
And he had a System that was currently feeding him the diluted soul of a battle-hungry alien who would probably look at the Chitauri invasion and think, "Oh, cool! A warm-up!"
Noah Kim stopped at a bodega on 48th Street. He bought a pack of gum and a giant bottle of water.
"Long day?" the bodega owner asked, eyeing Noah's sweaty, pale appearance.
"You have no idea," Noah replied. His voice was steady, but his eyes were looking at the man's chest. Not in a weird way. He could see the man's Ki. A steady, calm blue. A good guy.
Noah walked back to his apartment, climbed the five flights of stairs (without even breathing hard), and locked the door behind him. He sat on the cracked floor, stared at the hole in the wall his finger had made, and began to plan.
He couldn't stop Thanos now. But he could make sure Tony Stark didn't have to build the suit in a cave with a box of scraps all by himself. He just needed to figure out how to send a letter to a missing billionaire without getting himself killed by the Ten Rings or arrested by SHIELD.
It was going to be a very long three months.
[Template Synchronization: 23.1%]