Marvel: My Life Is A TV SHOW!-Chapter 128: Pumped Full

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Chapter 128: Pumped Full

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"At my side, you won't get staked for 'witchcraft' every time you sneeze wrong. I can't promise it'll be easy, but I can promise it won't be boring."

He grinned. "So what say you? Want to be part of the circus?"

Pietro's protective instincts warred with his reason. This man... This thing; had just dropped from the sky, kidnapped them, and was now offering them a home. It was insane. It was probably a trap.

But the alternative was going back to that village, to those pitchforks, to a death that waited with ugly certainty.

That or wandering the lands of Europe again, aimlessly, a tiresome, stressful endeavor.

"How can we trust you?" He demanded, his voice sharper than he intended. "And how could we possibly help someone like you? We're nobodies. We have nothing."

Adam's expression softened. "Trust is built, not given. I don't expect you to trust me today. I expect you to watch me, question me, judge me."

"If I slip up, if I prove myself unworthy of that trust, you're free to leave. I won't stop you." He tilted his head.

"As for helping me; I wouldn't call it that. I prefer 'mutual exchange.' You help with my endeavors, I help with yours."

"And as I said before, I sense incredible potential in both of you. If I'm wrong, no harm done... I'm happy just helping two lost souls find their feet."

Wanda stepped around Pietro, her eyes meeting Adam's. There was something in that gaze; a depth, an awareness; that belied her youth. "Your intentions don't matter," She said quietly. "Not really. You saved us. That's enough. We owe you a debt."

"Wanda..." Pietro started.

She silenced him with a look. "He's right. We can't go back there. And we can't keep running forever." She turned back to Adam. "We'll come with you."

Adam's smile was radiant. He opened his arms wide, embracing the empty air.

"Welcome to the family. It's chaotic, it's dangerous, and the dental plan is still being negotiated. But I promise you this... You'll never face a mob alone again."

["The dental plan is still being negotiated." PRIORITIES.]

[Adam's "family" keeps growing and I love it.]

[The Maximoff twins are joining Team Chaos!]

[Fuck, he's so charismatic it won't end well.]

[True true, but it's just a few cults and maybe a religion, not a big deal.]

[...] [...] [I fear it's going to get much worse, and likely, we'll be affected.]

The months that followed the Transian rescue reeked of creation and destruction, of building and burning, of the quiet whirr of machinery and the louder hum of media frenzy.

Adam Cypher had returned from Europe with data drives full of Hydra's darkest tech secrets and a burning need to build.

The cyborg research from Harlan Ryker's facility, the neural interface designs, the combat algorithms; they were raw materials for a craftsman who considered invention his highest form of play.

Cypher Corp workshop, Adam's personal workshop, became a beehive of outlandish projects.

The world outside buzzed with speculation, with admiration, with hatred, with chaos; but inside Adam's labs, there was only the pure joy of making something new.

Time was the one resource Adam couldn't manufacture.

He had the mind of a genius; half of Doom's intellect, siphoned through the Prime Curse, forever his; but even genius needed time to learn, to experiment, to fail and try again.

Every day felt like a race against an invisible clock, against the growing certainty that something was coming. Mephisto had been too quiet.

The demon lord's patience was ancient and terrible, and his silence promised a gift that Adam suspected he wouldn't enjoy unwrapping unless prepared.

Then again, maybe he will just laugh at impossible situations and welcome them with open arms, never forgetting to make the show entertaining.

Eitherway, time wasn't the only solution to his problems. There was a grander solution, one that had driven him since the moment he understood the rules of this strange new world: intellect.

The ability to think faster, deeper, more comprehensively than anyone else. Creativity and foresight far beyond anyone else. To see patterns where others saw chaos. To turn information into power.

His purpose was simple, almost embarrassingly generic; become so absolute that he never had to suffer again. Experience everything. Enjoy existence.

Make up for a childhood stolen by Hydra's needles and cages and his past life's illness.

Simple goals, impossibly complex execution; especially with the mystery of [Information] hovering at the edge of every thought.

Why me? He often wondered. Why am I the star of a show in another dimension?

What does [Information] actually want? Does it even want anything, or is it merely a coincidence?

He has theories, concepts of a plan, but answers remained frustratingly out of reach.

What he did know was that his fame, his infamy, his constant presence in the global conversation, was feeding [Information] at an unprecedented rate.

The Cypher Conference. The Hydra leaks. The constant stream of supernatural adventures on Pulse.

Every headline, every hot take, every hateful comment and adoring fanpost; it all flowed into the invisible reservoir, and the reservoir was overflowing.

[Information: Pumped Full]

[Natural Traits]

Envy(A): Slow. Stupefy. Brittle. Misfortune. Fade. Hollow. Recoil. Scapegoat. Muffle

True Vampire(A): Vampirism. Supernatural Physiology. Regeneration. Immortality. Shape Alteration. Atmokinesis. Blood Manipulation. Mesmerism.

[Information Traits]

Technopathy(A). Mechanical Force(A). Information Vision(A). Yin Yang Harmony(A)

The new additions were subtle but significant. Muffle had awakened during training with Elektra; a simple deprivation of sound that should prove to be useful.

Scapegoat was stranger, emerging not from envy of another's power but from Adam's monthly ritual of publishing 'newly discovered' Hydra atrocities.

He'd wondered, idly, if he'd awakened it because Hydra envied his divine blaming capabilities.

The effect was elegant; when something went wrong in a group, the target of Scapegoat became the irrational focus of blame. A pariah, created with a thought.

But the real prize was Envy's upgrade to A-rank, unlocking two additional Prime Curse slots.

The first Prime Curse had been spent on Doctor Doom long ago, permanently claiming half the monarch's intellect.

Now, two more slots waited, hungry for worthy targets.

Which was why Adam found himself parked in a sleek black car outside a private medical facility, watching the show.

Wanda Maximoff sat beside him, seeming much more relaxed than ever before.

She'd grown comfortable with Adam over the months; as comfortable as anyone could with a man who treated world-shaking events like minor inconveniences.

Today, he'd asked her to accompany him on one of his random drives, though more purposeful this time, and she'd agreed without hesitation. They're always entertaining.

A convoy of government vehicles had descended on the facility's entrance.

Ambulances, their lights flashing silently, the police already securing the perimeter. Stretchers emerged from within, each bearing an unconscious figure.

The first was a man with dark hair and the kind of face that belonged on a university brochure; the brilliant Reed Richards, now utterly unaware of the world around him... Unconscious

The rest were equally known to the audience, Sue Storm. Then Johnny Storm, the man with a cocky expression that even unconsciousness couldn't fully erase.

The fourth was a massive figure, covered entirely by a sheet that couldn't hide his altered proportions. Ben Grimm.

The Fantastic Four. Victims of their own ambition and bad luck. Well, it was mostly due to Reed's curiosity.

Reed Richards' unauthorized space flight, his experimental faster-than-light rocket, the cosmic radiation storm that should have been survivable but wasn't; it had all led to this.

Crashed. Unconscious. Transformed.

Adam watched the stretchers disappear into the facility, his expression unreadable.

Then, with but a simple glance, he reached out with his mind and took.

Prime Stupefy activated, and half of Reed Richards' legendary intellect flowed into Adam's consciousness like a river changing course.

It was a theft of staggering proportions; the mind that would have redefined human understanding, halved in an instant.

But Adam had learned long ago that sentiment was a luxury he couldn't afford.

He valued intelligence above all else, and Reed had intelligence to spare.

However, he wondered how effective the curse would really be on someone like Reed because the man could stretch his brain to increase its capacity.

Now, that's something to envy. Anyway, Reed will adapt... Probably.

Adam started the car and drove away from the facility, leaving the future to unfold without him.