Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 443 UPGRADES

“I want a turn,” Peter whined as Gwen floated a few inches off the ground then raised up to a couple of feet, then back down. 

“No, you had one already,” she said from the silver car. It wasn’t exactly a car, more of an all terrain mobile device for someone to sit in. In layman’s terms it was a fancy wheelchair. About six feet long and four feet wide, the chair looked sleek. All curves, and shiny metal, nothing on the outside really stood out to make it look like anything special, but underneath was one of the floating engines I had seen used on the gondola we took to the shopping district. 

Though it only went a maximum of ten miles per hour, I felt that the professor could use it. It turned out that there was no apparent cure for paralysis, so the floating chairs were common. The thing had cost me 500 sol, but I felt it was worth it to help appease the professor a little. Besides he had a similar chair in the comic books, and I was always up for keeping things in canon on track. 

The others were moving around in their new clothes and gear. We had found a very advanced tailor/blacksmith/merchant. Able to scan and practically 3-D print or alter any garment, everyone got a nice upgrade. I was able to pull out the future ARMIS suits out of my sub-space and gave everyone a set. Though they were the standard black, the merchant was able to alter the appearance based on my design.

Peter Parker now had a Spiderman outfit. The ARMIS suit as the base had red on top, with raised stitching for webs. After I showed him the spider emblem Peter was all for forgiving my antics. Granted I snuck a very tiny symbol of a penis in the etching that he hadn’t noticed, but he looked pretty cool. The only thing he was missing was a mask, which the merchant was able to print out with a nice fancy visor for eyes. 

Gwen Stacy had designed her own. Which looked pretty much exactly like the Ghost Spider outfit from the Spiderverse movies. Black for the legs and chest to show off her curves, white sleeves and her own spider symbol. She had requested a mask and hood and I gave her crap for copying my own hero costume hood, but she was happy with it. 

For Anne I had picked yellow and green like the suit I had seen her in the future wearing. The suit was tight against her and she was currently playing with making the nanobots move to different parts of the suit as she thought about getting stronger. She didn’t have a mask but did end up purchasing a green bandana, making her more like canon and hotter in my book. She smiled at me happily as we walked back to the gondola. 

Jessica Jones and Jean Grey had decided not to go with a suit. Though I showed them the capabilities they asked questions like, where did they come from? Why are they so skin tight? Instead they requested the merchant to make them some clothes based off their own designs. Which was basically their everyday attire with some extra armoring in it. 

Last was Lyra. Though the ARMIS suits could stretch, they couldn’t stretch enough. The merchant was able to get her a nice skintight copper colored outfit that could stretch to match her size. Showing off her green form she was able to become a She-Hulk without requiring rage to do it. 

I had spent a good amount of sol on them, but I felt it was worth it. Especially since I was able to buy the most important gear. As I studied the gear I brought up an item I had been saving in my status screen. 

I held the items and clicked yes. 

The armor itself was a sleek metal. All black with Watanabe hearts etched into it like my Hero Costume, it was what I planned to use for real fights. With top of the line Shi’ar plating throughout the armor, it was in all meanings of the word, bad ass. Like a mix of Batman’s suit, and some medieval knight it was a hi-tech marvel. 

The armor pieces were as thin as cardboard, and conformed to my skin. Showing off every muscle. They were advanced enough where a button at certain locations would disengage each armor piece. Easy to get out of and into, the only thing that wasn’t exactly like Batman’s armor was the helmet. Instead of the pointy bat ears, it was a helm with an open mouth where the top could be slid back. 

I planned to use it in DC world for my Batman persona, but also for real fights. I had tested the armor and knew that it was strong. Easily stronger than anything on Earth, it was lightweight and had the most important technology I could attach to it. A holographic feature. 

Though I had been skeptical about it, I had seen the holographic technologies that the world could produce, they were very life-like. Though it was useless against my Haki, it would fool most everyone anyway. Finally, after over a year of struggling, I had a transformation jutsu again. 

I had bought a few other holographic projectors as well as select technological advances I thought we could use as well. All this having ate up about 5,000 of my sols it was well worth it. With a smile on my face I clicked Yes and the Shi’ar armor stacked in my hands disappeared into my Status Screen. I saw that it was nice and stowed away in my screen, and no one batted and eye about it disappearing. 

Happy that I had saved the Item Choice so long ago I looked up to see Anne studying me. “What’s up?”

“Nothin,” she said with a smile. Walking closer to me. I could tell she was struggling with our fight slightly, but was coming out of her rage rather quickly. Though I wasn’t exactly sure about our position with one another, I was sure that we were better than we were. As we stepped up to the platform our floating ship was on I turned to our guide. 

“Polree, why so quiet?” I asked. 

“No reason,” she said. Though she had been quiet, the people following us had become more and more agitated as I filled my sub-space with loot. Though they couldn’t discern where I hid the sols or items, they had made a move to pick my pocket at least twice. During that time I had stolen some card which I was pretty sure acted as identification for the aliens, and some more sols from another. They hadn’t gone near me since then. 

Happy with the haul, we got onto the gondola as the world’s sun began to set. “Come on,” Peter whined as Gwen continued to float in the fancy wheelchair. 

“Fine,” she said as she hit a button and the chair clanked onto the wood deck. Peter jumped in, still wearing his spidersuit underneath a set of Shi’ar clothes I bought him. In fact everyone got a whole new wardrobe. Styled after the Shi’ar bright colors and robe-like clothes, they were comfortable and supposedly stylish. Peter continued to play at the fairly easy controls and began hovering in circles around the deck of the ship. 

“What the hell,” Anne mumbled, watching him. 

“Hmm?” I asked, surprised by how happy she actually felt. 

“Nothing, I’m just…happy to be on an adventure too,” she said, looking at the others in the group as she whispered the words. “I didn’t think I was jealous of all you were doing, but maybe I was.”

I frowned. Reading her haki, I was wondering if maybe that was why she was so mad. I had done so much without her. To be honest, I really had been busy. Running off with Cyclops as a trainer, lots of fights in between and since. Maybe I needed to reevaluate my understanding of Anne a little bit. For so long I had been dreading seeing her again, maybe taking a break from others wouldn’t be so bad. Focusing on her as we tried to repair a relationship that I had tried to break. 

She reached over and held my hand as we flew back to the school. Peter, Gwen, and Lyra asking questions about being a mutant as they took turns on the floating chair. 

“What should we name that thing?” I asked aloud as Lyra took a turn on it. 

“Silver Lightning,” Lyra said. 

“KITT,” Peter said.

“Christine,” Gwen offered.

“I think it looks more like Herbie,” Jessica said. 

“Ha! It does,” I laughed. The front was rounded like the VW frontend on the Bug. “Perfect name, I think the old man will like it.” It wasn’t long until we were back at the villa. Though it was dark now the place felt rather quiet. I could feel spiritual energies in the massive palace, groups picking sections of the building to make their own. 

“I’m gonna head to bed,” I told the others. 

“Don’t you want to give the professor his present?” Jean asked. 

“Nope, but let him know we already named it,” I said as I waved to the others and ran up a set of stairs. I had identified a section of the palace not taken over yet, and wanted some privacy for the time being. Too much going on lately, I decided it was time to do something I had been forced to put off. First with Anne and our original fight, then being whisked away to Shi’ar territory, I hadn’t had time to play with my recent rewards from the future. 

“Summon Tabi,” I said. The blue cat appeared in front of me and I grabbed her. Helping her to wrap around my neck. She looked around slowly.

“What is going on?” Tabi asked as I moved to the large cushioned bed.

“Where were you last?” I asked, unsure how this all worked for her. Technically I summoned her to the future, but at that time she was really in the past. Probably at Morgan’s house or the school. I couldn’t remember which. 

“The future with that woman of yours,” she said. 

“Ah, well we are in the past now…er present I mean. We got abducted by aliens and have to fight in a tournament,” I said.

“Of course,” she said boredly. “Why did you summon me?” 

“I thought we were friends,” I said, acting hurt. “I just like to hang out with you.” She eyed me, not answering. I let out a sigh, “I’m picking a room to stay in.”

She stayed quiet and I began looking through the nearby rooms with my Observation Haki. I left the main floor, walking up a long stairwell into a tower. At the top of the tower was a large room with a bed and massive balcony that looked outside. Decorations around the room, I wasn’t sure about the art hanging from the walls and the sculptures at the edge of the room. About to begin looking through my upgrades I stopped as I felt someone coming my way. 

“Shit,” I mumbled. Tabi jumped to the bed and I sat down with a tired sigh. I began petting her and the woman stopped outside the door. Slowly a knock sounded. 

“What’s up, Anne?” I asked. 

“I…thought…” She didn’t explain. Simply standing in turmoil as her haki went all over the place. 

“Come in,” I said. I was usually up for being around a beautiful woman, but our most recent fights had left a sour taste in my mouth. Since I knew that sex was off the table with her still because we had no clear cut path going forward, I needed to focus on getting stronger. But I waited dutifully for her to come inside anyway. 

Slowly she opened the door, shyly looking from me to Tabi. “Tabi is here?” She asked, surprised as she walked toward the cat. The blue flame hair of the cat puffed out as her two tails swished. It wasn’t long until Anne had swooped in to grab the tailed beast. The traitor began to purr happily. 

“What’s up?” I asked, as she changed her focus to the cat.

“Nothing…I thought we would…continue…”

“Fighting?” I asked, trying to push her. 

“No,” she said, annoyed. “I promised to hold off on that crap for now. I thought we were dating again?”

“Yeah, Anne, I don’t know what that means,” I admitted. “I mean…when we were dating we hung out. Then when we could touch all we did was make out and eventually other stuff.” She blushed furiously. That week between us beginning to touch and me sending her off to her folks had been rather intimate. 

“I wanted to…do that stuff again,” she mumbled. 

“And the other-”

“No,” she said, firmly, setting Tabi down. “Don’t bring anyone else up. Just you and me for a bit, okay?”

“So…we get to have sex?” I asked, putting a smile on. 

“Ye-no,” she corrected. Then slowly sitting down next to me she blushed as she said, “Maybe.”

“Oh yeah?” I asked, not intending to have sex with her at all. “What should we-” I had begun to lean forward toward her, then she let out a massive yawn. All of her teeth showing the yawn was loud and it wasn’t long until I was yawning as well. 

“We can-”

“Let’s just sleep,” I said to her. I could feel the exhaustion in her Haki now. Grabbing her hand I dragged her to the bed. She became nervous, but joy radiated from her as I laid her down. Instead of moving on top of her though I moved to behind her. Spooning her from the back as she slowly realized we weren’t going to do anything sexual. 

Quiet for a long time she started and stopped talking a few times. But as she felt my warmth and my hand rubbed the bare skin of her arm she fell asleep in less than five minutes. Once she did I moved my arm out from under her and slid back to the foot of the bed. I turned to Tabi who was staring at me. 

“What?” I whispered. 

“Nothing…you saying no to sex though…how serious of a situation are we in?” She asked. 

“Serious,” I said, looking back to sleeping Anne as I sighed. “And things are weird between us. I don’t want to promise more than I can give. You mind looking around the planet a little? See if you can glean anything going on about a tournament in the next few days.” 

“Sure,” she said, running off she moved to the balcony and jumped off without hesitation. Smiling, I turned back to my original goal as I brought up my Status Screen. 

I had some nice resistances, but as always the Items were the best choice. I had my new Shi’ar Armor which I was excited to try out. I still had a Bonus Copy, but hadn’t found anyone with cool bonuses I wanted to steal. Hopeful that I would find someone I left it alone for now and moved to my Bonus Upgrade+. It was really no question what Bonus I wanted to use it on. 

I still had another Bonus Upgrade as well. I had kept it in case I needed it for the Inverse Resistance against the Sentinels. Since they hadn’t upgraded fast enough to fight my nen though I didn’t use it. Instead I decided to use it on the one Bonus I had made myself. 

I had created the ability on my own during my time on Cthulu world in Invincible. I wasn’t exactly sure what it entailed but I figured it was good for the time being. Last but not least I knew it was time to finally use my Ability Combination. 

The Moderator had said it would mix two of my Abilities. Which sounded almost too good to be true. I had been hoping to stumble across an ability to help other Weston and I fuse together or potentially split ourselves again. I was hoping I could potentially mix and match my abilities to help achieve this, but as I poured over my Status Screen I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. 

“I got my Nen, which allows me to tap into my lifeforce. Spark which makes electricity. Union which…does something. Links to women somehow. Fusion that allows me to fuse similar and dissimilar objects. Timeflow which slows down time. And the new one, Rift, that allows me to open doorways to space, and open space into a sub-dimension…somehow.”

“What the fuck am I supposed to do with any of these?” I mumbled. I racked my brain, trying to figure out what combining an ability could do. 

“Would Timeflow and Rift make it so I could open doorways in time? Or just open doors faster? I need to focus on fusing and unfusing. Would Rift and Fusion allow that? What about my control of Haki? Is that not accounted for?” Unsure where to even begin I decided to just click it and see what happened. 

I held my breath and clicked yes. Praying that it wouldn’t automatically pick two Abilities to combine. 

“Woah,” I said. I hadn’t realized that it considered Kamjutsu it’s own ability. I had learned the technique back in Naruto World from the sea turtles. It allowed me to sense and absorb the natural energy of water around me. Reading the list it seemed Flight from my Viltrumite Form was an option as well. Which hinted that I probably had quite a few resistances that I couldn’t see either. 

Since Viltumites were able to traverse space they needed protection from hot and cold, as well as the vacuum of space and radiations. Hopefully I wouldn’t have to test it out, but it was good to know I had more protections I couldn’t see. I began to read over the list, but honestly there were too many variables. I had no idea how the combination could affect any of them. 

“Time to roll the dice,” I mumbled. There was a reason I had been upgrading the luck skill I got from Domino. Now that it was Fortune’s Blessing, I wanted to test out what my luck could do. Closing my eyes I shook my head up and down, unsure where the screen was anymore. When I was sure I wouldn’t know what I picked I poked randomly, two times.

When I opened my eyes, two items were picked. Spark and Union. As they became bold the screen disappeared and a new one popped up. 

“What the fuck,” I mumbled. “This would have been good to know earlier.” I had received Spark in Hero World, in the Smut Hall for Comics. Original me in that world had used the skill to create and manipulate electricity. I had used an Ability Forge to mix it with the ability of an immortal woman that healed people. I guessed that made it so my electricity could control people. 

Union had originally been Link, and I had received it in the Domination World. A weird place where men were strong and dumb and women were smart and docile. I had used the skill on two girls there as well as Anissa in Invincible. It had been upgraded some time ago to Union, but I never tried it out before. After I read it, I regretted not using the Union skill on more people. It sounded like a win for my harem. 

Annoyed, I wasn’t sure what combining these would do. They were my smut skills, and hadn’t been overly useful. Then again I didn’t expect to immediately be able to fuse back together with my other self. I was in this fight for the long haul. Maybe whatever this skill that was formed would help me reach that goal some day. After some minor hesitation I clicked yes. 

The screen stayed there for a long time. After about ten minutes a ding sounded and a new screen populated my vision. 

“What the fuck,” I repeated but stopped as my body was lit on fire. Crying out, I gritted my teeth as it felt like every pore in my body exploded. Tears in my eyes, the pain only increased. The only way to describe the intense pain was when Kuma made me feel the pain of Luffy, Sanji, and Zoro. Some kind of energy or something was trying to break out of my body, and my toughened body was struggling to keep it in. 

I felt something in my gut rip and I cried out. With a yell, blood spurt out of my pores all at once. Showering the area in blood as my clothes were ripped off of me. A white lightning shot out of me and began to spark and sizzle the blood. Unsure what else to do I dropped to my knees, crying out over and over as the pain redoubled. 

A new power awakening in me, this was the opposite of what the girls felt when I gave them chakra. Annoyed by that fact, I tried to push the pain out of my mind as my forearm tore open. A long line splitting the skin, more white lightning shot out of me and I cried out again. A white hot rage filling me I felt my teeth chatter, pissed off that whenever something changed in my body I had to deal with the pain. But all I could do was grin and bear it. 

Forcing a laugh as the pain only increased, I knew I’d make it through this. I’d made it through worse. It was only a waiting game as this new energy awoke in me, and I became stronger, bit by bit.