I sat cross-legged on the floor of my basement with a Vibranium helmet hovering just before me. It's design was heavily inspired by a certain dual-wielding Jedi Knight turned Sith Lord.
A thin blacked-out visor curved across its face, pointing ever-so slightly towards where my nose would be. The silvery Vibranium would stretch past my mouth, its cheeks curving inwards to accentuate the face-plate continuing just a little past the chin.
I planned to paint it black, with crimson-accents similar to my lightsaber.
Look good, feel good.
I looked up from the helm, glancing over to Genie.
"R2, how much time left on the serum?"
[It has been finished for 53 seconds.]
I grinned, storing my newly created helm. I still had to enchant it and add a HUD, but that could wait.
"How's the biochemical profile? Any anomalies or deviations?" I asked while walking over to Genie.
[The Serum is stable and 98% in-line with our predictions. The Extremis' Virus had issues melding with the harvested Spider Venom at first, tearing at one another much like rabid dogs. Its was only until we began inoculating the Virus and Venom in highly-concentrated enriched Vibranium energy did we finally see a change. The newly introduced energy acted as a medium between the two forces, converting and mutating each simultaneously into a new symbiotic substance, furthermore, enrichment after the symbiosis continued to further stabilize the mixture — reaching its peak of 98%.]
I hummed, staring into Genie.
An injection vial rested on a pedestal, a mercury-esque liquid swirling around despite nothing prompting it to.
It certainly didn't look like something you should inject. The color a caustic orange laced with strands of purple and black.
Well… no time like the present.
I extracted the injection vial from Genie, and summoned a chair from my storage.
"R2… if my heart stops send an emergency pulse to Tao's Token."
[Yes Riven… but are you sure you don't want to test the finished product on something other than yourself first?]
I smirked, "I trust you R2, you've never done me wrong so far."
…[I am a week old, there hasn't been far to go.]
I chuckled, "Don't worry about it, if things go tits up I'm sure Tao can just time-stone my sorry ass back."
It was dumb to be sure, but I had faith… everything worked out so far right?
Plus I needed this. I needed strength, power — security so that I wouldn't kick the bucket again, that my face could take a truck fender and survive to tell the tale.
I knew what was coming — Kaecillius and Dormammu, Thanos & the black order, people, things that would stop at nothing to rip me from the peace of my new reality.
And I had made a promise to Tao, can't save my Master if I can't even save myself.
I'm a little desperate… I thought with a chuckle.
With a deep breath I plunged the injector directly into my heart, the sharp pain quickly turned into a burning sensation as I watched the vial empty its contents into me.
My entire body suddenly twitched, muscles spasming as I fell out of my chair and smacked face first into the cold floor below.
I felt my consciousness wane as I began flopping like a fish, unable to register R2's concerned voice as drool pooled out of my mouth and my eyes drooped.
Then it was all black.
—
"Oh, its you — just visiting this time?"
A voice trembled through me, yet I couldn't find where it came from.
I looked down to see nothing. No body, no floor, just black — abyss.
"There's no need to rush, sweet child…" The voice whispered, its tone turning soft, endearing even.
"Just. Don't. Die."
—
I awoke in stupor, my eyes opening to a blurry world. I just laid there, waiting for the rest of my existence to return from its catatonic state.
My mind was blank, an unusual thing for me, I tried to grasp hold of what just transpired, but it slipped through my hands like the sands of time.
My senses crawled back into my mortal coil one at a time.
I tasted fire, a searing heat that laced my tongue like I'd swallowed a charcoal ember.
Then I smelt a smokey, half-putrid scent. Sweat and tar-like impurity.
My sense of touch returned, the cold of the floor below me, gone — replaced by a warmth that spread throughout my chest with every beat of my heart.
My vision sharpened, my dark eyes dilating with a clarity I didn't think was possible.
Then I heard R2, their ethereal voice washing over me in muddled waves.
[Ri—]
[Riv--]
[RIVEN!] R2 screamed.
I gasped for air, my mind snapping back to reality. I groaned pushing myself to my ass feeling a sticky layer of tar-like substance over my skin.
"R2… why am I naked?" I muttered, my voice a dry croaking growl.
I heard R2 sigh for the first time.
[Riven… you will not do this sort of thing ever again.] It demanded of me.
I weakly shook my head, "Sorry R2… I'll be more careful in the future, what happened?"
R2 sighed again, and a faint pulse of magic erupted before me morphing into a holographic projection of my spasming body. It sped forwards, minutes passing like seconds — I saw myself begin to burn, a searing heat that made my skin translucent, revealing thick veins twitching and coiling as my muscles contorted around them. I watched as my clothes burned away, the air filling with a sizzling as black tar-like droplets continually sept out of my skin, only to be evaporated mere moments later.
For an hour my body continued to morph, my head smacking repeatedly against the ground hard enough to crack the floor, healing fast enough to let me continue.
Then I suddenly stopped, my body freezing as if I'd been tased.
[Your heart fully stopped for 0.512 seconds. 0.2 seconds longer and I would've called Tao.]
I couldn't help but suck a breath through my teeth. Thankful that I was unconscious for what looked to be a hellish experience.
"Well… the good news is that it worked, I think?"
I looked down at myself to see muscles I didn't even know I had. My arms and legs felt like I'd replaced my flesh with coiled steel-cables.
I took a deep breath, feeling the air rush into my lungs before leaving my mouth far hotter than in came in.
"I'll need to do proper testing…" I muttered, looking down at my naked, sorry state. "…but first I need a shower."
—
Hot-near boiling water streamed down my body. I had the shower turned up as high as it could go yet it was disappointingly lukewarm.
My hair had grown, thick black strands that would curl at their tips, now sopping wet — hugging my neck like some sort of faux-fur cloak.
I scrubbed myself clean, dragging my loofah across my abs with a smug smile. It's like playing a washboard.
My obliques wrapped around my torso in tight clawing bands of rippling muscle. Every movement of my legs revealed coiling bands along my thighs, and my calves felt like I was a father of fifty.
Why anyone would exercise when you could just take experimental drugs is beyond me.
I shut the shower off, striding over to a slightly fogged body-mirror. I wiped my hand across its surface, revealing a jaw so sharp you could cut diamonds on it. A pair of dark orbs gazed back at me, a faint fiery swirl hidden deep within their depths.
War… war never changes.
External the physical changes were exquisite, loud, but easily muffled under my normal clothing. I had grown maybe an inch — and I also grew taller.
Pushing slightly above 6 foot, it was convenient that I was quite the introvert, as such transformations could be passed off as a summer growth spurt.
I'm sure the keen eye'd could notice the changes, though they'd have to get frisky to feel the full change.
I got dressed, my previously slightly oversized clothing now form fitting. Force blessings upon the runic enchantments of Kamar-Taj, as the resizing runes meant I didn't need to adjust my Master robes…
Which actually reminds me to weave some Vibranium into them.
[Riven the testing equipment is ready.] R2 said, speaking to me through the Force.
"Gotcha, I'll be down in a little bit, I'm starving."
And that I was, since I housed five burrito's in record breaking time. My stomach felt like an endless incinerator, converting food to energy the moment it hit my stomach.
Will I even need to shit anymore?
If true, the sheer time-saved alone made the serum worth it. Do you know how much time you spend shitting before you die? Too long.
Down in my base I found a number of transmuted weight-lifting equipment. Enchanted with a number of gravity increasing runes. The runes were powerful, but incredibly energy intensive.
If I want a hyperbolic time-chamber type environment I'd need another MTAR just to keep it running.
But for short testing sessions like this, my lone reactor would do.
I started with squats, setting the bar to 300lbs. Which felt like nothing. Might as well be squatting air.
I moved to 600lbs — again, nothing.
1200 jumped to 2400, then 4800, 9600, 19,200, until I finally began feeling the strain at around 38,400lbs, thats around 20-fucking-tons.
It was insane, and it was mine.
The rest of my testing followed a similar pattern. Deadlift — pushing 30 tons.
Bench press around half that.
I could jog over 100+ mph, sprint at 150, and if I really gave it my all I could get close to 200.
My vertical put hall of famers to shame, peaking out at 50 feet, no run up. Thats 4 - 5 stories tall.
My base physical stats alone made me a Force of nature…
But my metamorphosis was more than mere physicality. For I could now — breath fucking fire. First a dragon heart Kyber, now I'm breathing fire? What, am I destined to die at the hands of a Nord?
I could increase my internal body temperature up to a steel-melting 4000f — 2,204c, and the best part? I didn't blow up!
Testing my healing factor was probably the least pleasant part of the session… at first.
I began with the tip of my pinky, against R2s' wishes I slashed down at it with a knife — only for the high-carbon steel to buckle, leaving only a faint red line that vanished less than a second later.
I had to use a makeshift Vibranium blade, and even then it took a little sawing to get through.
I grimaced as the tip of my pinky lopped off, only to manically grin as I watched it grow back in less than a breath. My flesh gave off a subtle orange glow as it regenerated, and I noticed that my veins and nerves were Vibranium purple.
I wanted to test my healing factor more, just a hand, maybe a forearm but R2 was quite adamant that such a thing was "[Bordering the line of psychotic.]"
I guess I'll find my healing limits in the moment.
Interestingly, I didn't get wall-climbing, or Organic webbing. The latter of which made sense since Peter didn't have that either, but it would've been cool, if not a little nasty. The wall-climbing I wasn't too bummed about, I didn't want to crawl around anyways — I'm not a spider — I'm a space wizard with a laser sword.
The final thing on my testing agenda was whether or not I got spider senses.
I didn't feel any new senses, but perhaps I had adapted faster than Peter could, since y'know, he got bit by a deadly spider and all that.
I believe the Vibranium is to thank, as I didn't have the whole, 'took a step and launched myself into a wall' fiasco.
I was in control the moment I awoke.
Regardless, I began setting up a firing range with defensive runes that would try and blast me with basic energy bolts. Pretty inaccurate most of the time — so I set up a hundred of them. All encircling me like I was the chosen one, about to go all gunfu on their ass.
With R2 in control I stepped into the center of the area. The area around me lit up like it was Christmas, irregular flashes of purplish golden energy screaming towards me.
I felt the Force warn me, but my body was already moving — my precognition overlapping with instinct. I blurred, leaving afterimages as I practically began teleporting to the naked eye.
I felt my new spider sense begin to meld with the Force itself. The instinctual precognition fusing with the metaphysical with each dodge and twist.
By the time R2 stopped blasting me my world had been born anew.
It was… disorienting. Every frame of existence came to me fast and slow, the near future overlapping with my present. The world felt slow, vivid, every frame a painting I could see in newfound clarity.
This is going to take some getting used to.
No wonder Peter wore those goggles, and he doesn't even have precognition. The fusion of my spider senses and precognition was a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.
All-in-all I had thoroughly shattered my human limits and leapt up the evolutionary ladder with but a stab of the heart.
It was a feeling of great relief, to know that I was now a solid hundred steps above most of the dangers planet-side, still small fry in the grand-scheme of his cosmic entity filled universe, but eh, I take what I can get.
The fun part about all of my new physical gains, was that it was without the use of Force Body.
And ever since I had awoken, the Force had been pulsing with greater, and greater strength. My metamorphosis had increased my connection to the Force, or maybe my sensitivity to myself? Was it midichlorians? Whatever it was, it felt great. Like I could Force choke a dragon.
I let out a groan as I stretched, relishing in my newfound form. I've been holed up in my house for too long, like 3 ch--days.
I think it's time to make some moves.