An hour later, Arthur opened his front door and went into his apartment. He sighed contentedly and smiled.
"Home sweet home"
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Friday, 26 August 2011
Arthur took a nap as soon as he had showered and eaten a bit. The following afternoon would be spent testing his powers, finding their potential limits and establishing a plan for the near future.
'Hopefully a better plan than my last one.'
Using his laptop, Arthur looked for abandoned buildings and tried his best to find the perfect training location. It took about an hour to find the best place, as Arthur had to quadruple check that there were no cameras in the area. He didn't really want to be on Tony Stark's or SHIELD's radar.
Maybe someday he would be powerful enough to use his powers without hiding, but that would have to wait until he had more money, resources, and the power to protect himself and those closest to him.
Due to the cameras everywhere in New York, Arthur had to use the basement of an abandoned warehouse. Thankfully, it was spacious and wasn't falling apart, like many of the other abandoned buildings he had seen before this.
As soon as he was done scouting out the area, Arthur started testing out his powers.
Bast's blessing was supposed to bring multiple powers:
-An overall upgrade to his entire body and organs.
-Superhuman Strength.
-Superhuman Speed.
-Superhuman Agility.
-Superhuman Reflexes.
-Superhuman Durability.
-Healing Factor.
-Heightened Senses.
Starting with superhuman strength, Arthur found many large, heavy metal I-beams, which were usually used in construction, and tried lifting one of them. He lifted one and was surprised by how easy it felt. It was as though the beam was just a full shopping bag and nothing more.
After a quick Google search, Arthur found that an I-beam of this size weighed 520 lbs, so 1/4th of a ton.
Seeing how easy the first I-beam was, he tried lifting two I-beams together. There, he started to feel a slight strain in his arms. But he could still lift them without any problem.
Trying to lift a third and then a fourth, Arthur found that he could lift four I-beams at once, which totaled 1 ton. Anything over that would cause Arthur to hurt himself.
He could probably increase that 1-ton limit by training his body further, but he had no interest in becoming a gym bro.
Next, he moved on to testing his superhuman speed, running circles around the warehouse basement. He timed his run with a stopwatch.
The result surprised him. It was higher than he thought possible, at around 50 miles per hour, which was a little over two times faster than Usain Bolt.
Reflexes and heightened senses were harder to test but still possible. Arthur took a bouncing ball and closed the door to a little room that was bare except for the walls.
'It must have been a bathroom before.'
Before throwing the ball against the wall and closing his eyes, he could almost feel the air shift when the ball was coming closer to him.
His enhanced senses and reflexes combined together to make him look like a skilled dancer as he smoothly weaved in and around the bouncing ball.
Testing his durability was going to be tougher. He didn't particularly fancy being beaten up, so he put that test on the back burner for now.
After hours of testing his limits and training inside an abandoned warehouse, his clothes were ruined and he could feel the dust seeping into his skin.
"FADE"
He activated his ability before jumping on top of the abandoned warehouse he was training in. Hopping from building to building, Arthur quickly reached his apartment.
___
Fading was certainly overpowered, but if he activated the ability under the eye of a camera, he didn't know how it would look from the outside. He knew that cameras couldn't see him when Fading was already activated, but if it wasn't activated and he activated it while being filmed, it would be suspicious.
And who even knows how many cameras there are in New York? Just outside his apartment building, there were at least ten. Speaking of cameras, Arthur would have to find a way to deal with that problem permanently.
Living in the modern world is hard as a superpowered anonymous individual.
Tony Stark used Friday to find Spider-Man's identity far too easily in the movies, so maybe he needed some type of technology that scrambled a camera's picture when he was within a certain distance, no matter whether Fading was activated or not. Maybe a magical item that rendered him invisible to a camera could work too?
For either of those options to work, Arthur would need some extra help. For the technological route, he could probably make it himself, as he was fairly smart even in his past life. That combined with his newly upgraded brain should make him capable enough to make it.
Sadly, he would need to study to learn, and the parts he would need might be hard to obtain, even for him.
The magical route would be impossible, as he had no idea how that would even work, which meant he would have to ask the Ancient One for help.
'Maybe visiting her wouldn't be so bad.'
He had already thought about visiting her anyway. She was a good person to get on his side, the only problem would be that he couldn't know if she would value him more as an ally than a threat as an enemy.
'But that will have to wait until next weekend.'
Arthur had a far more important thing to do this weekend, a date with Gwen Stacy that could take precedence over nothing short of the end of the world.
Before going to sleep, he sent a text to Gwen.
__
Me:
Hi, I just came back to the US, tomorrow still good for you?
Gwen:
Yes, of course. When do you want us to meet?
Me:
Around 10 a.m., near the Met. Maybe go grab a coffee before going in?
Gwen:
Sure, there's a Starbucks nearby. Let's meet there. See you tomorrow, goodnight :)
Me:
Great, see you tomorrow, Gwen ;)
__
Turning off his phone, Arthur went to sleep with a smile on his face.
The next morning, he woke up at 8, ate breakfast, got a light workout done, showered and dressed up. By 9, he was ready to leave for the Metropolitan Museum.
Arthur felt his heart thumping with excitement at the thought of going on a date.
The subway on a Saturday morning was no less a rush of bodies and heavy smoke from the busy metropolis than during the week. The passersby, on their way to work, seemed to care little about his mental turmoil as he alternatively kept looking at his phone and looking at the gift bag for Gwen.
It was only the second date he had ever been on, and the first in this life, so he was understandably a little stressed.
He arrived at Starbucks a quarter of an hour before the agreed time. He looked around and, not seeing her, ordered a coffee to drink while waiting.
"Arthur, you're here early too."
As he was drinking what Starbucks sold as coffee, a voice interrupted his thoughts. He smiled and turned around.
_____