We spoke for another ten minutes as I gave them plans on what to do next. I didn't want anything to do with either secret organization, and I always found HYDRA to be an impossibility to function in the real world. I might try to lay low for now and focus on myself while they get that shit sorted out. But first, I pulled out the gun imposter Nick had on him.
A normal Desert Eagle shot 50AE. The giant custom Desert Eagle was supposed to take custom-made .600 nitro rounds, but this appeared to take .500 rounds. That difference was in price. Nick's custom would have cost about 150k to make, and each bullet was over a hundred dollars… Mine would be a few thousand dollars, and I could get forty bullets for the price of one of his.
It was still a hand cannon stronger than anything someone on the streets would use. For that reason, it would be hard to use it because it would sound like a bomb going off. It was best to be saved as a trump card. I tuck it in the back of my jeans and head out to buy/steal kitchen appliances.
The next day, I woke up to make homemade bread, brownies, cookies, lasagna, and a bunch of meal-prepped things. I would make about ten bowls of rice, chicken, beef, and vegetables to quickly mix and match for meals later in the week when I didn't have time. Starting at six o'clock and working for two hours before someone came in, I was glad I got most of the reverse housewarming gifts.
The housewife was a nice black lady. We talked a bit as she cooked food for herself and another family. Around nine, another mother came in, and I shared the oven with her, instead using my two rice cookers I brought to start the meal prep foods. While those were going, I got the chicken and beef cooking on a griddle I actually bought and didn't steal from Waymazon.
It made sense to me that the three richest people on the planet would run businesses similar to those of the three richest people on my previous planet. Tony Stark was Elon Musk, the richest and most diverse set of businesses. Bruce Wayne was Jeff Bezos, mainly focusing on Amazon (Waymazon), then finally Reed Richards was Bill Gates, focusing on tech breakthroughs.
The three constantly fought each other over who was the richest, but for a while now, it was Tony Stark out ahead. Reed was actually struggling quite a bit since he hadn't invented anything since he gained his powers, stagnating the business. The other people were closing in on Reed Richards, and Lex might pass him by soon, stealing his spot perhaps permanently. He and Ozcorp had their own rivalry over who could get away with more unsafe work environments.
Yeah, yeah, you might say that Wakanda is the richest country, thus making the king the richest, but that's bullshit, and people who try to say Aquaman is the richest because he owns everything under the sea have brain damage. If Wakanda or Atlantis went to war with this world, both would get their shit stomped by the stronger Justice League.
Honestly, with so many heroes, large-scale threats became less threatening. Oh no! Tony created Ultron, and he wanted to launch the nukes! If only there were literally twice the number of smart people around to think of a way to stop him. If only Mr. Terrific already had plans in place in case something like this happened. Oh, wait, he did! If only they had defenses in place in case something like that were to happen. Oh, wait, they did! Because of Brainiac.
"Well, my food is done now," I thought as I definitely overcooked the meat, getting lost in my head. I wondered if it was possible for me to be in the top ten richest people on the planet. I mean, I'm one of the only people who could make magical gear. I flipped at the veggies I cooked before putting them in containers and leaving the lids off until they cooled down to room temp.
The moms told me where my spot was in one of the four fridges around the room, and I filled it up with my meal prep stuff. I was putting things away and just familiarizing myself with the kitchen when the person who made me decide to live here came into the room. She looked at my food, especially the freshly baked bread, and grabbed at a box of Poptarts on the opposite side of the room.
I put on a big smile and offered her one of the big loaves of bread. "Hello! I'm your new neighbor, Danny Storm. Nice to meet you." She shook my hand and accepted the big loaf, pulling off a section and eating it while saying. "Nice to meetcha Danny. My name's Stephanie Brown."
For a brief moment, only perceptible by speedsters, my facade breaks as I think. "Fuck, she might still be underage."
Chapter 22
Alright, so some backstory needs to be done. Dick Grayson is already Nightwing. He still lives in Titans Tower, and they did a combined Titans/Young Justice story with them. He's like twenty-fivish right now, and most of the original members of the Teen Titans are leading their own groups.
Jason Todd already came back as the Red Hood and got that thing sorted out with Bruce already. He's less evil and really only wants to kill the Joker while maybe crippling the more evil villains, but knows that most of the henchmen are just guys who've been dealt a bad hand.
Tim Drake quit being Robin right before I stopped reading, breaking up with Stephanie before joining Superboy's team in the Teen Titans. Stephanie was Robin for like two weeks before I got teleported into this world, so she should be close to eighteen. She was older than Tim by a year or two, so if my math works out…
After talking, her age did come up in conversation, which put a smile on my face. I'll have to double-check her driver's license when I get the chance, just to be safe. They didn't show the weird pregnancy storyline, thankfully, but it might have happened outside of the comics. I doubt they'd have a girl under eighteen pregnant, though, so it should be safe.
She ticked a lot of boxes for me. Strong, pretty, and driven. Smart, kind, and outgoing. Morally righteous and an underdog, she was also single since Tim broke up with her. Now might be the only time I'd get the chance to get her before he kind of ruins her life. Just as I was trying to figure out a way to move this to my or her part of the house, another person entered from her door.
My eyes blink, and I have to not freak out when I see Cassandra Cain. I have to use my biocontrol to keep my heart from beating too quickly. I knew I acted differently around assassins, and it became clear when she looked at my face and said. "Smile. Fake." I couldn't help but be amazed by her. She hummed at me before saying. "Smile. Real."
Well, this complicates things tremendously. I wondered why she was here, but it was most likely because she was sent away by Batman with Spoiler. Stephanie talked to her animatedly over the bread I made, saying how light and fluffy it was. She ate it and said, "Hmm. Bland." I chuckled a little before walking over and handing her the brownies I had made.
She took one and started eating. "Soldier. Feet too quiet." I couldn't help but laugh. "*Hahaha!* Yeah, I'm a SHIELD member, that's crazy. How did you know?" Stephanie looked scared and like she was trying to think of an excuse before Cassandra said. "I'm a soldier. Big gun in butt."
I smiled and said. "I'll show you mine if you show me yours." She pulls at her belt, and a five-foot whip comes out. Nice, I'm really glad the ladies finished cooking breakfast for their families. I pull out the gun from my back, making sure not to point it in their direction. "Whip, that's not a very common weapon."
She finished off the brownies… That was supposed to be snacks over the course of a week. I grabbed one of the extra brownies and handed it to Stephanie. "So you can try the brownies since the ones I made for you are gone." I gave her my most beaming smile. Batgirl spoke up. "Trying too hard."
With her here, I think I need to shift gears and maybe move a few things around. I'd have to take Stephanie as a lover who would understand why I needed other lovers. I cleared my throat and said.
"Actually… I'm one of the 100."
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Batman's point of view
I watched the street cam footage of the night that Penguin's mansion was hit by someone. I knew Sandman was being held there and had planned to free him later that night. I stopped my plans as the area was too hot, but the next day, as I broke in and eavesdropped, I heard that someone had broken in, stolen money, and Flint Marco had been killed that night.
The facial recognition only showed a partial, blurry face I couldn't make out. Just who was this mystery man who broke in to kill a villain being held down? I could only sigh in frustration and give up for now. I closed that and opened another tab to a much clearer picture of the new tenant that moved into the building that Stephanie and Cassandra were living in.
Once again, the facial recognition software I ran didn't find any matches. It was like he appeared out of nowhere. This was the twentieth time it had happened since the 100 first showed up. This meant that I needed to create a new profile for this man who might be targeting the two. I felt dizzy; it was another side effect of what had happened to Alfred.
Since he was put into a coma, I kept forgetting to eat. Thank god Julia moved in to take care of her father, or I wouldn't be able to keep an eye on Alfred and fight crime. Besides having a constant caretaker for him, she also worked as a decent bodyguard. Unfortunately, being cut off from my company limited my liquid cash. I could only afford a half dozen guards for the house.
I grabbed the protein bar on my utility belt and kept reading other reports. Something big was about to happen, and I needed to figure it out before it happened. I clicked through over and over again, trying to see the big picture.
Chapter 23
Cassandra lunged at me. I made no movements to stop it as she wrapped her whip around my throat. Stephanie yelled. "Alright, that's enough, Cass! You explain."
I felt the whip abrasions and started to heal them. "Like I said. I'm part of the 100, so I know who you two are. I have no plans to tell anyone, but felt it best to be candid with you since Cass would probably figure it out soon anyway."
Stephanie responded out of emotion. "Your group is the reason everything bad happened to Bru- to Batman. Your group is the reason Alfred is in a coma!" She let her voice out at the end. Thank god these walls are so thick, or we'd be telegraphing this conversation to six other families.
"They aren't me. I know that there are people from the 100 on both sides of the hero and villain spectrum. I plan to be someone very important in the future, and I plan to drag my friends and lovers with me to the top when I make it."
She looks like she agrees before fully absorbing what I said. "Lovers? Like multiple?" I chuckled. "Yes. I plan to have relations with multiple women. One of the powers I have-."
An old lady enters through one of the doors and heads towards a fridge. I wait for her to start looking through the fridge before I realize there's no way a random lady is going to believe what I'm saying. "I can fuck people stronger." The clattering in the fridge stopped for a moment before continuing.
"Yeah, and I'm Batwoman." She gave me a deadpan stare, and I could only smirk. "Not yet, but you will be in the future. Well, if I don't change it, that is, and make you better than what you will be. I'm just saying I've seen your future, and I see tremendous potential, but you need someone to give you a chance. Well, I'm that chance for you to become great, maybe even greater than Batman."
"I'm in." Cassandra's voice came from behind me, and I wasn't expecting it. My brain shuts down for a few seconds before Stephanie cuts in. "Nu-uh no way I'm letting you have sex with this guy, Cass. We don't even know him; he could be lying." She cut her off. "He. Isn't."
I smiled at that, and Stephanie gave me a cold look as she started to drag her away. I grabbed the lasagna and cookies I had made for them and handed them to Cass. I couldn't help but say to the flustered Steph. "I want you, Stephanie, but if I have to eat up Cassandra to get to you, I will. I'll fuck your friend so strong you'll have to believe me."
"Dude, shut up." She pulled the door open and slammed it harder than necessary. The old lady had opened one of the containers of brownies and had started munching away. "So is that sex thing up for grabs. My husband passed last year, and I wouldn't mind taking a youngster like yourself for a spin."
I smiled at her and said. "Maybe if I can't catch the blonde there, I'll let you know in a week. By the way, all that food over there I made, and it's for you. My name is Danny. Nice to meet you."
.................................................................
"What the hell, Cass! I've never seen you interested in a boy before, and the first one who's an obvious playboy you fall for."
"No. Transaction. Mutual benefit." She stared Stephanie down, who just didn't understand what was happening. In what world does a guy show up and offer to have sex with them and other women, and for her to be okay with it? Stephanie calmed down enough to understand where Cassandra was coming from, at least.
Cassandra had never felt any connection with the opposite gender in that way, and that was still the case. Cassandra could just get something out of sleeping with him, so it was transactional to her. She gives him her body, and she gets stronger out of it. If she's stronger, she can help more people.
"No, Cass… It's not right to boil relationships down to give and take. You should love any man you're willing to sleep with." Stephanie knew she couldn't make Cassandra do anything, but she hoped that as her friend, she would listen to her. Cass only looked up to her. She gave her that piercing look, the look she gave when she was about to drop a bomb.
"Sad. He's sad. For you." With that revelation, Stephanie felt her core shake at that knowledge. Why would he be sad for her? It didn't make any sense.
...............................................................
As I shook the elderly woman's hand, I could feel a connection. My biological control was growing to where it was between the first and second rank. I felt I could take some of her biomatter and make very minute changes to her. If I asked for her permission first, I could do more, or if she was in an altered state, I wouldn't be able to make any changes. I stop by, just burning a pound of fat from her before I start to feel lightheaded. I gave her a big smile as she somehow didn't notice the changes to her body.
I finished my talk and greeted the other neighbors. Some didn't want the food, so I was left with two containers of cookies and brownies and four containers of the lasagna. I finished writing out a list of materials I would need for my magical research and headed out to the obvious spy van to hand it over.
"Listen. I don't care how old the trees are, but the older the better. The meteoric iron has to be pure. It can't be mixed with other irons, or it'll hurt the end product. The same goes for the gems. The longer they've been submerged in their elements, the better they'll be for end products."
I gave him instructions and headed off away from the house. While I expected the best resources from SHIELD, I still needed to get my own resources to make my own magical equipment until they finished making my wing in the SHIELD base. The main question is, where the fuck can I buy a forge?
After checking Waymazon, I'm surprised to see them on there. They're super cheap as well. I stole the rest of the supplies I needed to work with wood and metal, including a hundred-pound anvil. Walking it back to five blocks with a giant conspicuous anvil was probably the hardest part.
The next question is, where the hell can I buy really, really old wood? I googled (yeah, it's still called that) the oldest tree near New York and "borrowed" a vehicle to make my way to the outskirts of Boston. I climbed up the poplar tree and saw off one of the branches before hurriedly fleeing the scene. Google how much you can be sued for when damaging trees to see why I didn't want to be caught. I don't have a million dollars for damaging an ancient tree, so I dip out quickly.
Chapter 24
I purchased some more items on Waymazon. Sure, the meteoric iron is going to be fake, but there's a chance. There is a small, almost insignificant chance that it'll be real meteoric iron. I purchased some petrified wood, many, many of the cheaper gems, and a five-foot block of wood supposedly over one thousand years old.
With purchasing Waymazon Prime, I put a rush order on it all, and if everything showed up, it would take three days. I still had the wood I stole from the tree to work with. I broke the wood up into sections long enough to make staves out of and began to tinker. Etching the designs for low-level enchants just didn't work very well.
The wood was a good medium because it was full of life force, but I needed other forces to use the enchantments effectively. That leaves only life force-based magic to do. So no teleportation or offensive magic, only defensive and some utility. I carve out a little wood heart and enchant it to form a shield.
It immediately formed a shield for a second, then ran out of energy and crumpled, turning into ash. Well, that's the first part done now. I need to set an activation key for it. I start with needing to be touching a person to activate. Touching it sets it off immediately. So that one works too.
Now I just need a key to stop attacks from going over a certain speed. I set it to fifty because I remember people being able to throw pitches at almost 100 mph. I go to punch my hand, and it doesn't set it off. Hmm, maybe if I used a weapon, it would set it off. I grabbed my knife and swung it down, stabbing myself in the hand. FUCK! Why did I do that!?
Alright, so I messed up somewhere. I googled the fastest punch ever thrown… The fastest punch was clocked at 45 miles per hour. Alright, so I overestimated it a little. Going any lower was more difficult than I thought it would be. While trying to make it stop forcing over thirty, it would be set off much, much earlier than thirty.
After fucking with the enchant for eight hours, I say fuck it and put it at a hundred. It can stop bullets, which is really the only thing that can hurt the bat family. I need to test it, but… Definitely not with my gun. I need to go get a much smaller gun and perhaps a silencer to fire at myself.
I'll do that tomorrow. I head inside and get ready for bed. I lay down, and at some point, I'm woken up by a person crawling on top of me. Uh oh, I felt a hand on my junk. The person leans forward, putting their head next to mine before saying. "Don't tell. Stephanie." She slides herself onto me.
I can't see anything, my room is completely dark. Damn, I really wish I had a nightlight or table lamp to at least see what's happening. Cassandra is tight, definitely the tightest, even with all the liquid coming from her. Shit, I hope that's not blood. If she were a virgin and was completely dry, things would tear.
She cum's the fastest out of everyone, within a minute, and is mostly silent like Nat, with just more heavy breathing from getting there. I pick her up and carry her to the light before turning it on. Yep, completely covered in blood. "You should have asked me what to do before we started. I have a bottle of lube in my bathroom.
"Hurts, but. Can already feel more power." That shouldn't be possible unless. I checked her body with diagnostic touch. With the improvement to biomass, I can see someone has already made a chi core for her. It's terribly shaped and heavily leaking chi. If she were to reach the next stage, she would cripple herself trying to ascend.
"Alright, that's not good. Someone already made a chi core for you, so… Let me see if I can make a magic circle for you." I pull out some of the leaking chi before turning it into rope. She says. "Hurts." I let her know. "I'm sorry, it'll help you in the long run. Whoever made your chi core did an awful job."
"Chi master." She responded. "Yeah, they're about as much of a chi master as a monkey throwing shit at a wall is an artist. It's actually a good thing, though. It lets me make changes since it doesn't hold chi correctly… Wait a second."
I looked at her mana veins and someone forcefully expanded them to her eye chakras and left them on. That's incredibly stupid. "It seems like someone did a lot of damage to you when they made that core as well. Your eye chakra was left in a permanent state. It would cause major problems with your mental faculties, and you'd probably go blind in another ten years. I turned them off for you."
With deep heaving gasps, she closed and opened her eyes before starting to cry. "T-thank you."
"Yeah, don't mention it." I got back to making chi threads, and I'm glad it was fairly easy. I made one about half as thick as mine, but it would still function as a magic circle. It would still be better than a single rope circle by about fifty percent. That would mean she could use about fifty percent more magic before tiring than a normal first-circle mage.
I used the rest of her chi to soothe her ruptured and torn mana veins going towards the eyes. With that, they should heal slowly over time. "Alright, I'll go get the lube, and we can really start practicing on making you stronger."
Chapter 25
It took about six hours before we finally got the people above us thumping with a broom at the noise. Once again, Cassandra started off quiet and came quickly over and over again. Fifteen to twenty orgasms for every one of mine. But slowly over the course of the night, we would get closer and she would get louder. At the six-hour mark, she was wailing at the top of her lungs when she came.
I fixed everything wrong with her. Not only did her mana veins reach all twenty-two of her chakra points. She could activate them to send chi to empower each point separately as well as together. Not only that, but she maxed out all three circles, and I crunched her core down three times before she ran out of chi.
Doing so upgraded her from the gas stage to the liquid. We weren't compatible anymore as she slammed down. I started wincing from the pounding, and my body was at its limits. She was superhuman now. At gas, any chakra points you opened would give you a bonus to that particular thing. She had her eye chakras open, so it let her see things normal people couldn't.
At the liquid stage, her body was just permanently strengthened up to low superhuman. She is as strong as Captain America now. Plus, she can still strengthen her body with chi, at least bringing chi empowered punches or kicks up to mid superhuman. She could punch as hard as Spider-Man, who could break concrete walls without the danger of hurting himself.
Improved senses and by cycling chi, she could improve them even further up to the point of her eyes being able to function like a sniper scope. By cycling power to her ears, she could hear what everyone in the entire house was doing. Finally, with three circles, she could use far stronger magic.
If the first circle had magic like light, scan, gust, and spark. Second circle was flare, improved scan, gale, and flame. Third was where things got interesting: solar flare, x-ray scan, miniature tornado, and fireball were the magic you could pull off.
I started writing spells down for her and explained how to use them. It's more about intent than wording. Imagining a light but really wanting it to be strong might get you flare or even solar flare with the same spell. I also taught her the basics of forming a shield with magic and told her about the eldritch whip spell and using the shields as platforms to jump off of.
Finally, I decided to make her something similar to the staff of the living tribunal. Maybe a baton of the living tribunal? Staff would be hard to carry around. At that moment, I hear pounding on the door. As I open it Stephanie barges in and sees Cassandra eating one of my prepped meal bowls.
"God damnit, Cass! I was so worried when you weren't there! How the fuck did this happen?" I grabbed the rice and chicken I had stored in my mini fridge that Cass didn't steal and flipped the chicken into the rice. Using the microwave in the corner of my living room, I let them talk as I waited for my food to finish.
Stephanie was just as animated and shouty as before. We received another knock by the broom and told her to quiet down as I flicked on the TV. Morning cartoons were interrupted by live news coverage of a flattened building. Someone had attacked the kingpin's high-rise and detonated the bottom floor, bringing the whole building down.
More than a hundred dead, with another hundred injured from the fallout. Shockingly low numbers considering. Wilson Fisk's body wasn't found, so he most likely survived. This happened about forty blocks from us. I'm surprised we didn't hear it coming down, but this house is very sturdy. Normal apartments, we'd have been able to hear it.
Both girls got notices at the same time on their phones and headed off. Cass left finger dents in the door going back to her room, and I quickly yelled out. "Watch your strength! Don't go punching any villains till you get it under control."
Welp, I guess I'll go buy a gun now. It was fairly straightforward to buy a gun. The harder part was figuring out where I could fire it without getting in trouble. I headed back towards where I used to live. That shithole had gunfire throughout the day. I'd just go into the park a bit and fire at my hand to test this charm.
As I fired the gun at myself, I figured I needed a better way to do this, as the bullet stopper wooden heart exploded from being overwhelmed, and the bullet went into my hand. "So bigger charm to stop bullets." I'll go with twice the size, bringing it to about three inches or the length of a finger.
It would look silly as a necklace, but better wood would let me shrink its size so you could hide it under your clothes. Another test later, and the charm only had a crack running down with some fragments breaking off.
After I did a bit more experimenting, I took the rest of the day off.