The car took 14 minutes to arrive from the warehouses. I got in with my phone activating the locks. The electric car felt amazing to drive when I deactivated the autopilot and took the wheel myself. Everything in the car was already set to my height for the mirrors and seat so I didn’t have to adjust anything.

For a few minutes, I just drove around the city without going anywhere. The city was lit up and active. I marveled at the sights and put the car back into autopilot as I explored like a tourist. Occasionally I saw people flying through the air using a flight power or some other power. Some of the people on the street looked up to see them as well but not many.

In the end, my drive ended with a stop at the drive-through of a restaurant I had passed twice during my drive. I was unsure of what food I had at home but didn’t feel like cooking up anything or buying groceries today. I ordered my food and left for my house.

When I pulled up to the gates of the community it automatically opened in response to my car which was keyed to the gate. As I drove through I saw the security guard Rob. He waved at me, and I rolled down my window.

“Hi, Rob. How’s your night going?”

Rob stepped up to my car.

“Just checking something. You don’t usually come in this late on a weekday,” he said eyeing my food in the passenger seat.

“I just lost track of time today and have been busy. Am I good to go?” I asked Rob.

“Yeah go ahead.”

I rolled up the window and drove forward while following the map directions on the screen in the car. I pulled into the driveway and garage. The garage had nothing in it except me and the car. I closed up the garage after fiddling with the car charger. Once that was done I put the food on the counter in the kitchen and began eating.

I ate quickly and tossed the trash in a bin by the sink. I started doing a walkthrough of the house to familiarize myself with it all. The kitchen was across from the living room seating area and front door. The dining room was separated from the kitchen by a wall. I checked the fridge, and it was about half full of food. I checked some of the food and some of it was nearing its expiration date, but I would be fine to skip groceries for two or three days.

The decorations for the rooms were bland in my opinion but had some thought put into the choice. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to change up anything or not so I decided I would keep the stuff unchanged for now.

I followed the hallway to its end where I found the master bedroom and bathroom. The stuff within was much like the warehouse and I could see where much of the organizational ideas came from. The bed was made but not perfect and the items within had been organized into piles. I check the bathroom and it was clean and better organized but did have less stuff within. I moved on to the closet. It was separated into formal wear and what I deemed to be ‘school clothes’. The school clothes included jeans in several colors, shirts in three different styles and colors, and some jackets and hoodies from Hero Wear in designs to match my other clothes. When I felt the jackets I realized something off about them. I took one of the hoodies off and switched it out for the jacket I was wearing. It was much heavier in weight than I was expecting. After checking the pockets and interior I found that my previous self had modified them. The stitching was different because padding foam and treatments from the workshop had been added. This made it what I suspected to be some form of bulletproof vest disguised as a commercially sold item. I suspected the only way to tell that it was different would be to either have super perception, x-ray vision, or wear it and compare. I smiled as I put both jacket and hoodie back into the closet.

I went back down the hallway and checked out the downstairs. Downstairs there was a small office that had a computer and boxes of stuff I would have to go through later. I logged in to the computer using the same password and biometrics. After a quick check through it, I saw that it was connected to the warehouse computer and had all the same information. Attached directly to the side of the office was a safe room. The small room had a bunch of safety rations and tools. Some of which had come from the warehouse. The room could also lock from the inside. I disregarded testing it and left the room be. Next is the basement there was a small gym area with a treadmill and weight rack. I checked the weights, and they went from 5 pounds all the way to 100 pounds. Finally in the basement was a simple couch and TV set up for the enjoyment of myself and future guests.

After the relatively quick self-guided tour I decided to return to my room. It was getting late, and I could go through anything I missed tomorrow. With that decided I returned and changed clothes and went to bed for the first night of my new life.

<-0-0-0-0-0->

I thought I would have a hard time sleeping in a different environment and bed that night, but I was pleasantly surprised. Whatever magic they had developed in this world worked wonderfully and I fell asleep right away. It may have also helped that I have slept very little these past few days.

The next day an alarm on the dresser woke me up at 7 AM. I rolled over and out of bed. I tried on a few of the new clothes first before making my selection. After choosing one of the ones, I found most comfortable I went to the kitchen.

For breakfast, I made up a simple batch of eggs and toast with peanut butter. During the night I had received two text messages from Dan and Quinn acknowledging that I would be busy for a week. Once I finished my breakfast I cleaned up and went to the basement office.

The first thing I did on the computer was start the process of canceling what college classes I had. I was not my other self and did not have the knowledge of this world I needed to survive. Not really. If I stayed in those classes I would probably flunk anyways or get D’s. I also had no reason to continue them if I was going to make this business venture forced onto me to work. It will be some time until I become a true professional like my alternate self. Until then I will fake it until I make it.

With that out of the way and my schedule cleared I did a bit more research on myself. I checked profiles for different websites saved on my computer. I looked through my bank account and confirmed I was in the green for a while at least. The restaurant had set the bar for the pricing of everyday items though I didn’t know how much materials would cost once I started running out. Nor did I know how to order more. I looked into it next.

Under one of the regularly visited websites was a ‘Home Depot’ for superhumans website. It had everything I would need for now at least. Everything from the chemicals to my safe room items was available and ready to ship within the hour. For a superhuman business, everything could be delivered quickly using runners for an extra fee.

I moved on to my other bookmarked pages. There were news sites and entertainment sites among them. While they were interesting, and I did want to catch up on what I was missing they weren’t my priority for the next week. I knew that I needed to learn how to operate the machines and make the commonly sold items if I wanted to continue my existence pretending to be myself. This world had social media sites like my old world, and I hadn’t made much of a presence. The only thing I could find was that I was a student in college and was working on my degree in Bio-Mechanic Sciences with an emphasis on superhuman genetics. Clearly, my alternate self was going all-in on this arts and crafts for superhuman stuff, and I guess I was going to try now too. I may not have quite as much technical background as a nerdy psychology major, but I knew how to adapt and follow some tutorials, kind of. Connected to my school profiles I saw that I had been a member of a few clubs during my time in school but none I had started this semester. I wasn’t sure why though.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Throughout the morning I did a mix of reviews of the machine instructions before trying out the exercise equipment in the gym. As I worked through the material and reviewed I also went back through the creation process of the smoke bomb. With the multiple pages open and my memory, I went back over what I had done wrong. I confirmed that I had miss tightened one of the small screw pieces causing the bomb to leak improperly. I also tracked down the root cause of the fog mixture creation to the heating settings I had used after I consulted the chemistry textbook in my backpack.

Once I finished my workout I ate an early lunch and then drove to the warehouse. I could not sit at a computer screen all day no matter how much I wanted to. If I was going to learn I needed to do it in a proper laboratory setting supplemented by some reading of course.

When I returned to the warehouse I started up the CNC machine thing and had it start making the pieces that had broken off. I went straight for the half-filled canister of fog gas and emptied it directly of the fans in the warehouse. The fumigation system sucked it up and filtered it out into the air.

With the cleanup finished I picked back up my chemistry safety gear and got started. I pulled the chemicals off the shelves I had got them from initially and placed the recipe to my left. I began prepping the beakers and heated up my vat for it all to mix in.

It took me about the same amount of time to finish the concoction maybe less. I made sure to follow the steps thoroughly and keep the temperature at the right spot, unlike last time. I brought the now empty canister over to the side of my vat and hooked it up to the side for a fill-up. I had prepped a full batch this time instead of making a half batch because it would take the same amount of time. I watched on in happiness as the canister's pressure gauge shot up and hit full capacity. I unhooked it and set it aside while I fixed the container.

The CNC and 3D printer had been finished for an hour now, so I opened them up and brought the pieces over to the others. The assembly process was quick but careful. I made sure to double-check the pieces as I went. The final piece clicked into place and the jutting pieces of the bomb’s sides slid into place.

I brought it over to the canister and fill it. I topped it off with the pin and brought it over to my corner once more before deciding against it. The fumigator was the better spot for it and was designed for this purpose and it wasn’t going to explode. Or I don’t think it will explode this time. I set it down and activated the fans.

The fumigator hummed as the fan ramped up and the smoke bomb activated. The bomb created a hiss once more, but it wasn’t as harsh as the last bomb. I knew I had done it. The bomb emitted dark smoke for a little over twenty seconds before it ran out. Thanks to the fumigator I didn’t have to watch through a gas mask.

Happy with what I had done I put away the chemistry equipment and began to clean up. I set the empty bomb aside and started the production of more. The gas canister had plenty of juice left over and I needed practice assembling and maybe disassembly as well.

The pieces printed quickly and after an hour I had the parts for an additional four smoke bombs. While I waited I reviewed for tomorrow. I found more info on the party on the web and why it was such a big deal.

Her father was Todd Jacy the current holder of the name Hercules which gave him some rights within his extended family. Rachel and Tabitha were both cousins and held at least some power to fly which was a requirement for being Legacy. Tabitha had recently turned 18 which meant she could take up the mantle of Legacy if she was worthy enough. AKA she had to fight for it. After delving into the rabbit hole further I saw references to other ‘Mantle Fights’ as they were called. They happened almost once a generation or more depending on the family. For the Alvarez family, they had once had fights go between members of their fire school, and they ‘honorably lost’ the title until it was recovered a month later by the previous owner. Since that incident, they still kept the offers up to students, but they and the other families changes the requirements for challenges. The first was if you wished to challenge for the title you must have the power. The second was you must be of the bloodline with the exception of the Alvarez family. The third was for cases of repeat requesters. They could only challenge once every five years. Fourth, was that holders of the title were required to accept challenges that came if they had not accepted one in six months. The final requirement was that first-time challengers could challenge the holder at any time between their 18th and 20th birthday and the holder could not reject even if six months had not passed.

This fight was interesting to the news reporters because of this last rule. Another younger member of the Jace family had challenged Rachel for the title and won but barely. After the incident, Tabitha was more confident in winning and had declared her intention to battle when she turned 18. Rachel could not refuse so she accepted the battle and set it for tomorrow. Her birthday.

I heard the sound of the machines shutting down and knew that they were finished. I brought out the pieces and sorted them. Using the finished one as a template I began assembling them one at a time. As I worked through each one I tried to avoid the instructions. Occasionally I sneaked a peek from them when I was unsure. Soon enough I had finished the four smoke bombs.

I looked them over and compared them to the fifth to make sure I had done it right. After I inspected the last one I started disassembling them. The first time I disassembled them according to the instructions before doing it on my own. I put away the instructions as I worked. Eventually, I got stuck as pieces weren’t sliding apart like I thought they would, and I had to consult the instructions. I kept working.

I spent the next hour disassembling and then reassembling the smoke bombs until I felt I could do it without looking at my hands. With the exception of a few small screws that required a screwdriver, I felt each one come together like a Rubik’s cube. Each piece slid in at only one or two possible places so once my hands got the feel for it I could do it all very quickly. Even disassembly went by quickly. It wasn’t quite as fast as I had gotten assembly down, but it was much better than yesterday.

After the hour was over I filled them all up and set them with the other finished smoke bombs. It was then I started to catalog everything within the warehouse. Within the files on the computer, I had seen some information on what items I had for sale in the store but there was no such list for materials. I tried looking for one within the files, but I couldn't find it. It was strange that the materials list wasn’t available, so I started making my own.

First I updated my available smoke bombs before moving on to raw materials. The metals were the easiest to do so I started with them. Large buckets filled with raw ore or processed metal sat in buckets. It took some time for me to drag it all over to a scale, but I finished eventually. After I moved the metals back I went through the chemicals. I didn’t go through and empty out the bottles or anything like that, but I did mark whether the bottles were opened unopened and how full they were if they were opened. I also moved the unopened bottles to the back and the opened ones forward so that I would remember to use them. It was a key rule I had learned while working in a grocery store once that the first ones in should be first out so that stuff wasn’t wasted.

The next items on the list were fabrics, foams, and other suit items including 3D printing spools. This section took the longest because I had to check whether it was opened or not and then decide how much of the mile-long fabric had been used. It eventually it easier because I began using how many times it was wrapped around its spool to measure but it was still a lot. The next section was electronics and miscellaneous stuff. The electronics were already labeled nicely so all I had to do was decide on how many there were and if I wanted to move the boxes to new places. The longest process for this section was trying to enter it all into the computer and not miss a letter in the 20-digit part names. Some of the parts were labeled for ‘ARGO’ which I set aside in their own bin. The other miscellaneous stuff was hard to describe by their nature. Sometimes they were random electronic parts that didn’t have a clear label that I could match visually or otherwise to other pieces. Other times it was the half-finished projects that I would have to identify within the computers system later.

I ended the night at about 7 PM once again as I sunk myself into my tasks for the day. I was glad about the work I had done for the day. The warehouse was better organized, and everything was making progress in the machine processes. I got in my car as the sun was setting and drove home.