So, here’s what I learned from all that. 1. The X-men are good but not great yet. 2. I could do a whole lot better but I think I’m at the point where I could do street-level work now. 3. I think I figured out what Mr. Shadow was trying to tell me about my powers. I took me a while, but I figured out the catch 22 I am in. See what Mr. Shadow was saying was that I was thinking about my powers in a purely scientific way and that was limiting them but on the flip side, the only reason that they were even working is because I understood a little bit of the science behind them. This went a long way to explaining all the inconsistencies I’d had with my powers. So, with nothing else to go on, I decided to just try a bunch of different stuff and see what worked without worrying about how I was doing it. This led to me being a minor OP character that didn’t know if or when some of my powers would even work when I really needed them. I was essentially broken in two ways (Stupid level powers but they don’t always work) but figured the training with the wizards could help me with that later on. The good news though, is that the prize Mr. Shadow gave me was a base. Well, I think it’s a base. While I was healing everybody up, a present box just appeared next to me and inside was a land deed and some keys. After a search on Google Maps, the address showed up as a smallish warehouse in Chelsea. I plan on checking it out once I head to the city to start my patrols.

The next thing I needed to finalize was my suit. Who knew that Professor X and Beast were already on good terms with Reed Richards so they already had a steady supply of "unstable molecules" materials to make the X-men suits, so that was one less headache to deal with. The biggest problem was Forge. This guy was never around when you needed him. Between all his government work with Homeland and SHEILD, plus all those R&D think tanks banging down his door it was hard to get a hold of him. Luckily the headpiece I wanted him to build wasn’t that complicated and he was able to bang it out in an hour. Although he wasn’t able to do an A.I. because he’d never worked on those before. But I did give him some ideas on how to get started. I’ll just have to make my own once I get situated.

Ok, I’m going to describe my suit but let me start by saying that this is just a prototype before you start laughing. It’s a onesie!! A big all black onesie but only because I was using "unstable molecules" material. That stuff is hard to shape so to keep it simple, it needed to be a onesie. Picture the black Spiderman suit but with a midnight blue hawk on the chest instead of a white spider. I also made a midnight blue cowl cape that was deep enough in the hood that you could only see the glowing blue eyepieces of the mask. The mask was the main thing Forge worked on. It was soft like Spidey’s masks are but had mostly the same kind of tech as Tony’s. The only thing I was missing was an A.I. but I figured once I finished working on my brain, I should be able to bang one out myself if I even needed one at that point. The other thing he helped me out with was a utility belt that I gleefully (Stole) borrowed from Batman, again with a hawk logo instead of a bat. I won’t go into the details but here are some highlights: Hawkarangs that I could throw or control with TK, Plastic handcuffs, USB hacker for doors and computers cause I’m still working on my TeK, smoke bombs, first aid kit, Forensics Kit, and a rebreather/gas mask. Most of this stuff was just in case something happened to my powers and I couldn’t use them or they stop working. I haven’t found my Kryptonite yet but that doesn’t mean it’s not out there.

Now for the personal stuff. Jean (who I’ve been dating for almost 2 months) made it crystal clear that she was coming with me. Even though I explained to her that my life would be long periods of routine boredom followed by world-ending danger, she still insisted that somebody need to keep an eye on me and that she was perfect for the job. I may or may not have slipped up and told her that I loved her too. And no, it’s not too soon, it’s just that I’m a bit of a private person when it comes to that stuff and I need to work up to telling all of you, every single romantic detail of our love life. I’ll tell you what, I’ll do a flashback special that will be dedicated to just our relationship. Anyway, moving on she became a reserve member of the X-men and transferred to ESU to finish out her Psychology degree. We going to check out my warehouse this weekend and finding someplace to stay.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

I was really going to miss my new friends especially since I’d never had any before. This was all a new and good experience for me. They threw us a big going away party even though I kept telling them we were only moving to the city, not another world. Even though we were leaving we would still be dropping in on them from time to time and I hoped to get in on some of the classic missions they went on. I’m guessing that it’s after Iron man 2 when the Sentinel program will kick off and I have plans for those things. I also really want to put the beat down on Magneto because he’s the biggest hypocrite in the world and for the way, he treats his kids. Speaking of them Polaris swears she and only child and this MCU has mutants so Age of Ultron is going to be very interesting when it comes to Pietro and Wanda. Personally, I feel for what happened to Jarvis but I love Vision, so guess I’ll have to have Tony back him up some way because I really hated all the A.I. that came after.

Me and the professor had a heart to heart before we left and I gave him an… let's call it an outline of things to look out for. I told him that there are aliens out there and that some of them consider themselves to be gods and actually ruled the world for a time and would try to again if they ever came back. That he really needs to relocate all of Cannonball’s family to the school and maybe give his mom a job as the house mother??? I also suggested that the X-men get a PR representative and get ahead of the haters in government and fund their own lobbyist to push his agendas. But the biggest thing was that he needed to find someone he trusted that he could talk too about anything and to not let things build up inside. (I wanted no part of Onslaught but I wasn’t sure how to stop him from happening.) I told Cyclops that I’d be in touch and that in about a year and a half I knew where we could steal a spaceship so he just needed to wait and train the X-men well on how to stop an invasion or fight a war.

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The warehouse is amazing!!! The outside doesn’t look like much but the sign on the door said New World Inc. which was kinda funny when you think about it. When you come inside you see and standard 3 room office with a little reception area and a small bathroom. There is a hallway that leads to the main warehouse floor that’s completely empty right now. To the right, you can see stairs that lead to a pretty decent apartment loft by NYC standards. 1 bedroom, 1 full bath, living/dining room, and a medium size kitchen. Thank Stan Jean loved it because I was not looking forward to apartment hunting in Manhattan. Mr. Shadow even kicked in for the furniture. I’m thinking with a little work this could be the HQ for my business. In the kitchen I found a letter address to me taped to the fridge from Mr. Shadow. He told me to go to the utility closet and flip some circuits in a specific order to get a bonus. (Who doesn’t love freebies!) So, after following his instructions a section of the back wall opened up into a dark stairwell leading down to a hidden basement. Now I don’t want to sound ungrateful to Mr. Shadow cause he just gave me a bunch of free stuff but would it have killed him to put in an elevator. Those stairs were extremely long, I’m guessing, enough to reach a good deal under the seabed. And I was dreading going up and down, up and down all those stairs every time I wanted to get to the basement. I guess I could fly, but still….

All was forgiven when I got to the bottom and saw my new tricked out lair. The centerpiece was definitely the computer. I haven’t really got into the guts of the thing yet but I can tell you for sure it's not from earth. Even my TeK doesn’t work on it. What I do know is that it’s fast and voice-activated but it doesn’t have an A.I. At least I think it doesn’t. Think Siri on steroids. It is able to connect with my mask and the coms system I set up for Jean (She also wants to patrol with me and become a mainstream hero.) but I don’t know how it does it yet. I’m thinking this is another test from Mr. Shadow. And even If he didn’t tell me so I would definitely be thinking he’s preparing me for something. The last thing about this Computer is that there is no screen. It’s all interactive holograms. The Lair also contains state of the art facilities such as a crime lab, specialized laboratories, mechanized workshops, personal gymnasium, a mini library, parking, docking space for various vehicles as well as separate exits for the various types. It also has a mini medical facility as well as various areas used for training exercises or practice.

Mr. Shadow really saved me a whole lot of time and trouble because I’m broke and I didn’t want to have to keep mooching off the X-men. I did have plans to rob from the bad guys and probably will still, to keep the lights on and get my company off the ground. Right now, I’m using my supercomputer to track Bruce, Tony, and Thor. It didn’t seem like when the movies came out but then events of Ironman 2, Thor 1, and Hulk happened all around the same time. So, my priority is to get out there and make a name for my self so that when I show up for the big stuff people aren’t like “Who?”. Also, I want to speed up body and matter manipulation so I can finish modding my body and get started on my nanites. So till next time!!!