Electrify

With the exposure of Mutants or Metas, the world was different. A few areas that were infested with crime had a complete makeover and were bow safe havens for everyone, but other areas were gone to shit and chaos reigned supreme. One of such chaotic places was just out of New York. It was a quiet suburb before it was overrun by many criminals and gangs and was turned into a fortress by a few metas they had on hand. Shield had its hand full and the X-men were more or less dealing with the new students. Fury and I had decided to ship these people elsewhere and the best place for this was Florida. The less humane of the people that were found were either killed or sent to the raft.

There was another UN meet being called and this time around that issue was a bit otherworldly to say the least. It was to decide the space exploration rules and to form a separate entity that was not under any of the nations. All the world leaders were required to participate and failure to do so would inexplicably lead to their people being confined to earth. Even the leaders of closed off nations like Wakanda and North Korea were present.

"This day will be a turning point in human history. Today, we will decide the nature and the make of the organization that will solely be heading the space exploration front. Now, put all the animosity aside and focus on the new frontier. Let's make history." I said and began to carefully explain the objective and the hurdles that we have to face.

It was a long day and the key factors of the program were decided. The first hurdle we faced was the recruitment of the people that were to be included in the project. IQ and morality were the core points of the recruitment process. Followed closely by age, body function and profession. The only people that were selected had to go through a few examinations that included a written test, a practical test for their selected field in a virtual environment, medical tests and a physical test. These tests were designed to put the person's emotions through turmoil through a series of subtle tests that were hidden within the other tests. Once these tests were done, we would set a cut off criteria and those who passed were the best humanity had to offer. Of course, there were other plans also in place for the younger generation. There were schools being set up with a new curriculum designed with space exploration in mind. Finally, the name of the organization was decided to be "the Ark". It was simple and didn't have much meaning because it was the only one with a majority of votes.

With that done, I took a vacation and went to a place called Kerala. A state in India with dense forests and beautiful sights. Fiore was definitely appreciating the forest and I was appreciative of the peace and quiet. Finally away from Shield and avengers.

"You think it will be okay when we return?" Fiore asked skeptically.

"Nope, things would have definitely gone to shit. We will worry about that when we get there." I said and pulled her back to bed.

As such our week was filled with sėx and sampling local cuisine. We even went out to see a boat festival. I even got dressed in a local suit called Dhoti, which was essentially a cloth wrapped around my waist. As luck would have it, we encountered a Vampire. One that was living off cattle and wildlife. He even invited us to lunch where we discovered that vampires don't really have taste for cooked food and that was reflected in the garbage meal that was served.

"How is this food?" Fiore complained.

"It's cooked and I even put salt and other bullshit you humans eat." He yelled back.

"But it tastes disgusting." Fiore complained.

"Well, it tastes the same to me. I can order some pizza if you want." He said, calming down.

"You have pizza here? Yes, order a whole bunch." She said and backed down.

"So Naveen, how long have you been a vampire?" I asked and he began to count something on his fingers.

"800 years or something. Can't be sure because I was in hibernation for a millennia before I woke up. These were a whole lot of kingdoms back then." He said nonchalantly as he dropped a bomb like that.

"Wow, are you affiliated with the guys in the US because they are causing some problems, but there is another vampire killing them." I said and pulled up a photo of a black guy wearing glasses and slicing up a vampire.

"Oh, the day walker. I met him a few years ago when a lesser vampire started causing some issues here. Nice guy, a bit intense." He said.

"Day walker?" Fiore asked and he hummed for a bit before answering.

"Essentially a vampire who can walk under the sun freely." He said and put his phone down. "He was born to a human woman but hours before his birth, she was bitten. He became a sort of half breed. He can survive on human food and also on blood. One of the few half breeds around."

"So, you are a day walker as well?" I asked and he chuckled.

"No, I am a true vampire. Born from pure blooded vampires. Essentially, a step from a vampire lord." He said and used his claw to stab himself in the heart. .

"The fuċk." Fiore yelled and we watched as the blood flowed back into the wound and the wound closed itself back to clear skin.

"Only, a true vampire can do that. The rest will die if their hearts are destroyed or their heads cut off. Vampire lords can regenerate from a single drop of blood, while true vampires need already a kilogram of flesh to fully regenerate." He said and poured himself a glass of blood. "Lesser vampires will burn in sunlight, or be killed if they take enough damage. Ghouls are even worse, as they can bȧrėly be better than base humans." He said, taking a sip.

"Couldn't you have explained without grossing us out?" I asked and he chuckled again.

"Where is the fun in that?" He said.

Soon, the pizza had arrived and after a meal we were back on track. Fiore was surprised by the flavors of the area on the pizza. I mean coconut powder on a pizza is a bit too much if you ask me, but Fiore enjoyed the weirdness. We went back to our place for a relaxed evening. On our way there, I began to feel different. Fiore was startled as my celestial armor emerged from my skin and before I could do anything I began to grow in size.

"Max, what is happening to you?" She yelled.

"My powers are acting up. Don't worry but stand a bit far away." I said and began to meditate.

One of the spherical organs inside my abdomen was acting up. I hadn't noticed it till now, but the energy that was slowly gathering inside the organ was now up to full capacity and now it was spilling on to my body. The growth in size was natural as the average celestial height was about 620 meters. The growth stopped after a few hours and the organ which was still energetic, began to pull on the gray energy. I was terrified when the space cracked inside the organ and the energy began to pour into it until the organ was completely empty. The crack in space soon stabilized and somehow solidified. I could feel that the energy produced by the organ was being fed directly into the portal. I instinctively knew that the energy was mine and I had complete control over it. I also knew that the portal inside my body was a personal dimension that was filled with the energy and it was expanding as the energy was put into it. There were several more organs that were active now and were producing different forms of energy. Few of which I could instantly recognize like psychic energy, anti-material energy, pure life energy, electricity and its variants and finally, pure formless energy. I also gained a few more senses, like a form of spatial awareness of my immediate surroundings, awareness of my density and size, and finally, scopaesthesia or the sense that knows when you are being observed. I immediately detected 13 sights that were on me. 4 of which I immediately recognized were the ancient one, Heimdall, Exitar, and Fiore. Out of 9 beings that I wasn't familiar with, 4 of them were Celestials that were watching me from Hyperspace, 2 of them were operatives from the shield watching me through the satellites, 1 was Xavier through his cerebro, the other was some weird alien that was standing on the moon and the final one was everywhere. I opened my eyes to see a sea of colorful energies, particles and strings. I felt the world vibrate with energy and the very space around me thrum with energy. I felt Fiore like never before, her form and her very existence vibrating with energy. I waved my hand and the forest around me took a new form. Colored leaves, intricately weaved branches and all under my control. I sighed and turned everything back to normal and finally looked down to see Fiore kicking me in the foot.

"You ȧsshole, do you know how worried I was?" She yelled.

I crouched down and touched her with my finger. My finger was half a foot thick and was made of metal.

"What happened to you?" She asked.

"My physical form is reaching its potential height." I said and closed my eyes to concentrate.

I focused on the sense of size and imagined it to be small and my body responded by shrinking. Thankfully, my weight scaled with my height because I had to already keep my weight in check to give the appearance of walking normally instead of thumping the ground everywhere I go. After reaching my dėsɨrėd height, I retracted the armor inside myself and examined myself again. My heart had moved to the center of my ċhėst and the size of my lungs was reduced to a tenth, however the space inside my lungs had increased drastically via simple space expansion. I sighed again and opened my eyes to examine the skin. Thankfully, nothing had changed too drastically except for the glowing lines of energy that covered my body.

"Wow, that is like a tattoo but better." Fiore said as she touched me all over. "You have these on your pėnɨs as well." She said, examining my junk.

I pushed her away and summoned up some clothes to wear. After that bit of excitement, we headed back to touring the place. Days passed by quickly and the day came where we had to return to the work we had set up for ourselves. The moment we landed on the roof of the building three agents approached us and led us to a conference room where there were literal piles of paperwork that had to be approved. I kissed Fiore goodbye and got to the paperwork which was quite mundane and seemingly useless to the point where nearly a quarter of the paperwork was dedicated to the simple requests that the agent had put up like increase in pension funds, or addition of a specific dish in the cafeteria. I sped up and had the work done in less than an hour and left for kamartaj.