"Tony Stark is suspected of having obtained the legendary Fountain of Youth. He and Miss Pepper Potts appeared together looking nearly ten years younger!"
"Not long ago, Air Force Commander General Ronald also seemed to be a decade younger. All the negative commentary vanished instantly. Is this a coincidence, or has the Fountain of Youth truly emerged?"
"An eyewitness claims that at the Morgan Antique Car Grand Prix, high-profile elites and politicians from various countries were seen. They allegedly belonged to the upper echelons around Osborn Group…"
"According to an anonymous source, the Osborn Group has achieved a major breakthrough in biomedicine. Humanity may soon have hope of regaining new life…"
"It's reported that America's rising star, the Osborn Group, is preparing to establish a headquarters in Taiwan, moving to a dual-HQ system. Has this Western pearl reached some sort of agreement with Taiwan?"
"…"
The next morning, reports on the Osborn Group began appearing in major media outlets. But they all came from smaller newspapers or tabloid columns. The truly mainstream media remained collectively silent, giving up on this surefire sensational headline.
Everyone sensed that things were not so simple. Discussion around the Osborn Group grew ever more intense. Attention on the upcoming Osborn Expo on June 5th was at an all-time high. Yet as to these media reports, the Osborn Group stayed silent—no rebuttal, no agreement, and no opposition. Essentially a stance of: "Say what you want; I'm not listening."
Norman wasn't sure how to handle it, and Aaron couldn't be bothered. He casually tossed the newspaper aside.
"Felicia, want to come with me to New Mexico?"
Felicia poked her head out from a pile of paperwork, giving him a look full of grievance.
"Boss, you know me. I'm currently swamped with Expo-related work. With Mr. Norman away, my workload has tripled!"
Felicia was drained. Other secretaries either work, or get worked on—nothing like her situation. She worked harder than a draft horse, and whenever she got any downtime, she had to satisfy her boss's terrifying demands. Her legs still felt weak. Especially now that Norman was absent, she realized the sheer scale of what that extraordinary former R&D president used to handle. It was endless—utterly impossible to finish!
Felicia had been busy with a mountain of documents since early morning. Heaven knows—she hadn't even graduated yet; how on earth did she end up bearing all these responsibilities? But there was no choice. Right now, Aaron ran the Osborn Group by simply giving orders, Norman executed them, and the entire secretarial department was run ragged. With Norman away, the only people who could sign off on anything were Aaron and Felicia. Hence she had no choice but to soldier on.
She had to organize the Taiwan HQ inspection, arrange the Expo schedule, oversee the Solar Project and the Regeneration Cradle Project progress, and handle countless appointments.
Even with her motivation to become Spider-Woman, Felicia felt her brain's CPU was close to exploding. If only she could learn some clone technique—no, four or five clones might be barely enough…
Aaron glanced at the towering stack of papers, felt a bit sorry for her, and then looked over toward New York. That one was still sleeping off her exertions from last night's "research" on his Celestial Flower variant; she hadn't woken yet.
Even in her sleep, she clutched a Celestial Flower in her hand. Presumably, the moment she awakened, she'd dive right back into research. He hesitated, then looked at Barbara, who was still studying with Kate. As for Skye… she had just closed a multi-billion deal with Aaron. Since she wasn't fully recovered, there was no relying on her right now.
Aaron sighed:
"Knowledge always seems lacking when you need it most. And you can never have too many women!"
"Felicia, make arrangements for the plane. I'll head to New Mexico on my own."
Felicia rolled her eyes, picked up her phone in a huff, and contacted the private jet. Once they confirmed the schedule, the airport in New Mexico began preparations.
Aaron made a quick stop by the storage room, then had the owner of the insect shop deliver some goods. After paying a generous fee, he sent him off. Most of what he fused this time were duplicate abilities, weaker than before, so they offered minimal boosts. He also fused certain plants. He already had a plan:
He intended to fuse the traits of all species on Earth—possibly every species in the universe. If he was going to fuse one, he might as well fuse them all. Absorbing any beneficial traits was the first step to achieving all-round power.
By fusing these plants, the biggest gain was improved light-energy absorption. Apart from that, there was one other decent upgrade:
[Super Breathing]: A similar ability has been detected and fused. You now possess more efficient breathing. Every pore and every cell in your body can breathe. Even underwater, you can maintain normal respiration.
Furthermore, Super Breathing combined with his light-energy absorption, kinetic-energy absorption, and other talents, evolved into an even more efficient overall energy-absorption ability. Now each pore, each cell of his body was like a ravenous diner, greedily devouring energy from the environment—plus power from his "solar core."
Whenever people weren't looking, his body was like a high-speed machine undergoing astonishing transformations. Every day, he could feel himself growing stronger—not an illusion. He could sense every change in his internal organs, down to the cellular level. He could clearly sense how his body was storing, using, and distributing energy, and how each cell was born or died. That clarity let him fully realize just how terrifying these internal changes were.
If anyone tried researching his body right now, they'd surely shout: "Impossible! Absolutely impossible!" Put it this way: each of his cells already contained far more energy than a standard missile. In a little more time, each cell might catch up to Tony Stark's first-generation arc reactor. Perhaps in a few months, they'd match—or even surpass—the second-generation arc reactor. And he had roughly one hundred trillion cells.
In raw numbers, a first-gen arc reactor outputs about three billion joules per second for fifteen minutes, so around 2.7×10^12 total, more than enough to blow up a skyscraper. The second-gen reactor was a thousand times stronger, at 10^15 joules. If that energy were unleashed all at once, it could wipe out a small town. By that measure, destroying a city was a trivial feat for him now, and destroying an entire country wasn't too far-fetched. Going even more extreme—say, placing a few extra solar cores and detonating them like hydrogen bombs—would lead to truly despair-inducing power.
However, given the current level of human technology, it wouldn't be easy to study Aaron's body. Even a single cell of his could withstand anything that humanity's weapons could throw at it. So he didn't worry about stray tissue samples leaking. No matter how they studied him, they'd never catch up to his accelerating transformation speed. Aaron figured: "You can try researching me all you want—if you can even glimpse my dust trail, I'll concede!"
"Honestly, I'm sure I already outclass Superman who's sunbaked for thirty years. I just wonder where I stand against Odin—am I definitely stronger, or is it a close match?" He mulled over it and reckoned he had the advantage. He was too versatile, and Odin was far too old. If Odin had been a couple thousand years younger, maybe it'd be more interesting.
Aaron took a deep breath and stopped overthinking. Alone, he boarded the private jet. Gazing at the empty cabin, he felt something was missing.
"Probably a few busty flight attendants!" he joked to himself.
He briefly thought about asking Felicia to find some, but considering the current situation, who knew if she'd hire some special agents who might cause him trouble? If he were really greedy, he could end up hosting a "little United Nations" all by himself—exciting, but maybe too chaotic. Aaron closed his eyes, thinking that traveling alone felt wrong. Perhaps because he'd grown so strong, so quickly, absorbing so many abilities, something felt lacking.
"Definitely not my actual personality—this must be the side effects of too many powers!"
Three hours later, at Albuquerque Airport:
"Look, isn't that Aaron from Osborn Group?"
"Oh my god, that's him!"
"I'm gonna ask for his autograph!"
With just a glance at the crowd rushing toward him, Aaron slipped through the special VIP lane. He got into the bulletproof Rolls-Royce prepared by the Osborn Group's local branch in New Mexico and headed straight for Old Bridge City. Midway, though, fierce storms arose ahead, thunder dragons roared, and a hurricane whipped up the desert, throwing massive clouds of sand into the air.
"Boss, should we pull back and wait for better weather?"
"Keep going!"
Through the car window, Aaron looked up at the sky. Just then, he saw a figure dropping from the clouds.
"Head that way!" he said, pointing northwest. The driver obeyed immediately. He had no idea why this eccentric billionaire wanted to go there, but if the boss wasn't afraid, neither was he.
In the back seat, Aaron was carefully sensing the raging electromagnetic storm outside. He had the power to control electromagnetism, but he wasn't fully adept yet. It had only been a bit over a week since coming to this world, and he'd picked up dozens of abilities, without enough time to develop them thoroughly. Now, amid this violent weather, he could test some of the less-practiced talents.
Little by little, the thunder overhead grew even louder, as if on the brink of crashing down. The driver glanced upward nervously.
"Boss, this doesn't look good. The thunder seems to be zeroing in on us…like we're in the eye of the storm. Our signals are going haywire under this electromagnetic interference. We'll lose all contact with the outside if we press on."
"Don't worry. Triple pay this time—just go."
Without lifting his head, Aaron continued his own "experiments." He was attempting to control the magnetic field around them and harness the power of the thunder overhead. In theory, with his electromagnetic and lightning manipulation, he could tap into that mighty natural force—but it would take time to handle. And there seemed to be another power at play here, adding complexity to the electromagnetic environment. Sorting through these disruptions and taming the lightning wasn't simple—he was wrestling with that other force!
Simultaneously, Aaron split his focus to test his ability to manipulate "air," effectively controlling the wind. After all, wind is just air in motion, so in theory, as the master of air, he could conjure great gales or tornadoes at will. Thus, in this moment, he was working threefold: adjusting the wind, realigning the magnetic field, and taming the lightning. His tug-of-war with nature caused the electromagnetic signals in the vicinity to fluctuate wildly.
Not far away, a van was also heading straight into the thunderstorm's center. Under nature's fury, it was like a tiny boat in a vast ocean, ready to be overturned at any time.
"Ah! We're gonna die! Turn back! We look like idiots charging into trouble!"
Despite Darcy's shrieks, her driving was remarkably steady. One hand held the gearshift, the other the steering wheel. She hollered in terror while maintaining a good grip on the roadway. Still, her yelling didn't faze the person who was truly in charge.
"Darcy, focus. You don't want to fail your credits, do you?"
Jane Foster was tapping on a piece of equipment, frowning.
"Doctor, our device is malfunctioning! Look, the data line is jumping up and down like a roller coaster."
Erik Selvig moved closer and examined the readout, which soared, plummeted, then flattened, only to spike again.
"I suspect it's more than a simple glitch—this is outrageous. We should recalibrate and come back later."
Erik shook his head, pulling out a second device. He looked almost manically excited.
"Hang on. We may be witnessing a never-before-documented natural phenomenon. The atmospheric variations are chaotic, like a brilliant musician performing a bizarre symphony. No one's ever recorded data like this. It could be of enormous value to my research!"
He kept collecting data, brimming with excitement. He had never seen anything like it. It was as if some divine being had just decided to fiddle with this patch of sky—wind, magnetism, and lightning intertwined in a perfect tapestry. Incredible!
"Mark my words, this could be the greatest discovery in recent times!"
"And I guess the Fountain of Youth is just secondary?" Darcy muttered.
"I mean for meteorology!" Erik clarified, while Darcy rolled her eyes. Jane Foster refocused on the readings.
"Believe me, this discovery might benefit you for a lifetime. Nature is absolutely breathtaking. I'm almost convinced an unseen hand is orchestrating all these changes."
Erik spoke under his breath, words getting lost in the rumbling wind. Then, all of a sudden, the churning weather around them went still. Thunder subsided, and the tornado-like winds froze as though someone pressed "pause."
The three gazed up in shock. Erik lowered his head, eyes on the instrument readout.
"The electromagnetic signals have gone back to normal. It's oddly calm—like none of that happened."
"What on earth is going on?" Jane wondered aloud.
Right at that moment, a figure tumbled from the sky and smacked into the ground ahead of them. Startled, Darcy slammed the brakes.
"Wow, did you see that? I did not hit him! The dashcam proves it!"
Darcy was an excellent driver, and she did not want her license revoked.
"What is that?" Jane Foster looked off to one side, spotting a luxury car, spotless despite the desert grit, looking absurdly out of place.
"A Rolls-Royce? That must be hundreds of thousands of dollars, right?" Darcy muttered. "What kind of crazy rich person barrels into a thunderstorm in a car like that? Just give me some of that money!"
Her gaze tracked the Rolls-Royce as it pulled up. Then an Asian man stepped out.
"No way… that's him!!"
Aaron made his way toward the unconscious Thor. He flexed his right hand—he was about to gain the power of the Thunder God!
"Boss, do we need to take this guy somewhere?" the driver asked. Aaron paused.
"Carry him into the car and drive him to one of our partner hospitals," he ordered.
The driver hurried to pick Thor up.
"Man, he's heavy!" he complained, cheeks reddening. "At least two hundred pounds!" Nearly threw out his back.
Just then, Aaron glanced over at the trio who had climbed out of the van, his gaze lingering on Darcy.
"She'd make a decent flight attendant," he mused to himself.
~~~
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