[Third Person Pov]
"Okay, now that you've learned the true nature of your quirk, let's begin with your actual training," Tony said as he observed Eric closely.
Eric straightened slightly at that, his earlier confusion giving way to focus. The faint psychic glow around his body flickered as he instinctively activated his quirk again, though this time there was a noticeable difference in how he held himself. Instead of bracing like he was putting up a shield, he looked more aware of the energy itself, like he was trying to feel it rather than just rely on it.
Tony noticed immediately. "Good," he said. "You're already adjusting your mindset, even if you don't realize it yet. Keep that."
With a small motion of his hand, the environment around them shifted again. The blank white room dissolved into a wide, open training field made of reinforced metallic flooring that stretched out for hundreds of meters. The sky above them turned into a neutral gray, free of distractions.
Tony stepped forward and pointed toward a marked section of the ground.
"First, I'm handling your strength and speed," he said. "Right now, your quirk enhances you passively, but you're not controlling how that enhancement is distributed. That's inefficient."
Eric walked toward the marked area, rolling his shoulders slightly.
"Stand there," Tony instructed.
Eric did as told.
"Now, reinforce only your legs," Tony said. "Not your entire body. I want you to focus the energy downward."
Eric frowned slightly. "I've never done that before."
"I know," Tony replied. "That's the point."
Eric exhaled slowly and closed his eyes for a brief moment. The kaleidoscope-like aura around his body flickered unevenly before beginning to shift. Instead of evenly covering his entire body, the energy started to concentrate downward toward his legs, though it remained unstable.
"That's sloppy," Tony said immediately. "You're still trying to spread it evenly. Stop doing that."
Eric clenched his jaw slightly and tried again, this time focusing more deliberately. The glow around his upper body dimmed while the energy around his legs intensified.
"Better," Tony said. "Now run."
Eric didn't hesitate. The moment he pushed off the ground, the difference was immediate. His body launched forward far faster than he expected, forcing him to quickly adjust his balance mid-stride.
"Control it," Tony called out. "Speed is useless if you can't handle it."
Eric gritted his teeth and kept moving, each step becoming more stable as he adapted. The reinforced floor beneath him cracked slightly with each push-off as the concentrated energy amplified his leg strength.
"Again," Tony said as Eric came to a stop. "This time, don't just focus on forward movement. I want acceleration and deceleration. Start, stop, change direction."
Eric nodded and immediately went again. He sprinted forward, then abruptly shifted to the side. His first attempt was clumsy, his momentum nearly throwing him off balance, but he caught himself and adjusted.
"Distribute the energy dynamically," Tony instructed. "Your legs aren't just for moving forward. They control your entire center of gravity."
Eric tried again, this time shifting the energy between his thighs, calves, and feet as he moved. His turns became sharper, his stops more controlled.
Tony watched closely, a faint smirk forming. "There you go. Now you're actually using it."
After several minutes of repeated runs, Tony raised a hand. "Good enough for now. Melissa, he's yours."
Melissa stepped forward, stretching her arms slightly as she approached Eric.
"Alright," she said with a small smile. "I'm going to handle your durability and reaction speed."
Eric barely had time to react before Melissa suddenly vanished from his line of sight.
His instincts kicked in immediately.
He felt it before he saw it.
Eric shifted his energy upward just as Melissa's fist came flying toward his side. The impact landed, but instead of sending him flying, the reinforced energy absorbed most of the force. Even so, he slid back several feet.
"Too slow," Melissa said casually.
Eric exhaled sharply. "You could at least warn me."
"I just did," she replied, already moving again.
This time Eric focused harder, reinforcing his vision, his eyes tracking her movements more carefully. The moment she disappeared again, he expanded his awareness instead of relying purely on sight.
When she reappeared behind him, he reacted faster. The energy surged to his back just before her strike connected, reducing the impact significantly.
"Better," Melissa said. "But you're still reacting after the fact. I want you to anticipate."
She attacked again and again, each strike coming from a different angle. Eric was forced to constantly shift his reinforcement across his body, redirecting the energy to wherever the next impact was coming from.
At first, his movements were delayed, but gradually he began to pick up on patterns. Subtle shifts in air, small movements in Melissa's posture, tiny cues that signaled where the next strike would come from.
His reactions became faster.
More precise.
Less wasteful.
"Good," Melissa said after another exchange, stepping back slightly. "You're starting to get it. Don't just defend, read the attack before it happens."
Eric nodded, breathing slightly heavier now.
"Alright," Momo said as she stepped forward. "My turn."
She raised her hand, and objects immediately began forming around her using her creation quirk. A long staff appeared first, followed by a set of blunt weapons, then sharper ones.
Eric eyed them cautiously, "What exactly am I doing?" he asked.
"You're going to reinforce them," Momo replied simply. "If your quirk is truly psychokinetic reinforcement, then it shouldn't be limited to your body. You just need to learn how to apply it externally."
Eric frowned. "But I already told you, I can't extend it—"
"That's because you believe you can't," Tony interrupted from the side. "So we're going to fix that."
Momo tossed the staff toward Eric, "Start with something simple," she said.
Eric caught it and hesitated for a moment. Then he focused, trying to push his energy outward into the weapon.
At first, nothing happened.
"Don't think of it as leaving your body," Tony instructed. "Think of it as extending what you consider 'yours.'"
Eric tightened his grip slightly. The energy around his hand flickered… then slowly spread. A faint glow began to travel from his palm into the staff.
Eric's eyes widened slightly.
"Good," Momo said. "Now reinforce it."
Eric focused harder, and the glow intensified. The staff felt lighter, stronger, more responsive in his hands.
"Now swing it," Tony said.
As Eric did as he was told, the air cracked slightly from the force of the swing.
Eric paused, staring at the staff in surprise.
"That's… new," he admitted.
Tony smirked, "Like I said, your quirk isn't weak. You've just been using it wrong this entire time."
Time passed quickly inside the simulation room, far faster than Eric initially realized. What started as simple drills gradually escalated into more demanding exercises, each one building on the last. Sweat soaked through his training clothes, his breathing grew heavier, and the once unfamiliar sensation of directing his quirk began to feel more natural with every repetition. The chaotic, unfocused aura he had at the beginning was gone, replaced by something more controlled, more deliberate. He wasn't just activating his quirk anymore, he was using it.
Tony had not gone easy on him.
By the time the next phase of training began, Eric's legs felt like they were on fire from repeated bursts of acceleration and sudden stops. His body had taken dozens of hits from Melissa, each one forcing him to refine his reaction time and redistribute his reinforcement more efficiently. Momo had pushed him even further, making him apply his quirk to weapons, forcing him to abandon the mental limitation that it could only exist around his body. The first time he managed to reinforce something outside of himself had been shaky, but now it was becoming consistent.
Even so, Tony wasn't finished.
The environment shifted again and the open training field dissolved, replaced by a massive urban landscape. Towering buildings surrounded them, streets stretching out in multiple directions, debris scattered across the ground as if the area had already seen combat. The sky above darkened slightly, giving the entire simulation a more oppressive atmosphere.
Eric stood at the center of it, his chest rising and falling steadily as he took in his surroundings.
Tony, Melissa, and Momo now stood at a distance, observing.
"This is where everything comes together," Tony said. "Strength, speed, durability, reaction time, Internal and external reinforcement. You're going to use all of it."
Eric glanced back at him briefly. "Against what?"
Tony didn't answer immediately.
Instead, the sound came first, a low mechanical hum echoed through the streets, followed by the synchronized movement of multiple heavy footsteps. From the ends of the surrounding roads, figures began to appear.
One. Then three. Then ten.
Eric's eyes narrowed as more and more of them stepped into view.
They were humanoid machines, sleek but heavily armored, their bodies composed of dark metal with faint glowing lines running across their frames. Their eyes burned with a dim red light as they locked onto him simultaneously. Dozens of them.
"Ultron Sentinels," Tony said casually. "Don't worry, I've reduced their overall output. They're weaker, slower, and less durable than the real thing."
Eric stared at the growing number of machines. "There's still a lot of them," he pointed out.
"That's intentional," Tony replied.
"Individually, they're manageable. Together, they'll overwhelm you if you make mistakes."
Melissa crossed her arms slightly. "Think of it as the ultimate test."
Momo added, "Use everything you've learned. Don't fall back into old habits."
The Sentinels began to move.
Eric exhaled slowly, his body beginning to glow again, but this time the energy didn't just spread aimlessly. It tightened, focused, flowing exactly where he needed it.
"Alright…" he muttered.
The first wave rushed him and Eric didn't wait. He pushed off the ground, his legs reinforced as he shot forward at high speed. The moment he entered their range, he shifted the energy into his arm and drove his fist into the nearest Sentinel.
The impact echoed through the street as the machine's torso caved inward, its body launching backward and crashing into two others behind it.
Eric didn't stop moving, he twisted his body, redirecting the energy into his legs again as he avoided a strike from the side. Another Sentinel swung at him, but this time Eric reacted before the attack fully formed, reinforcing his shoulder just in time to absorb the hit and counter with a reinforced elbow that crushed the machine's head.
"I'm impressed," Tony muttered from a distance. "He's a very fast learner"
More Sentinels closed in.
Eric grabbed a fallen piece of debris, focusing his energy into it. The object began to glow faintly as he reinforced it, then he swung it in a wide arc. The makeshift weapon shattered on impact, but not before tearing through multiple machines at once.
He dropped it immediately and moved again.
A beam fired toward him and Eric's eyes sharpened as he shifted the reinforcement across his body, the energy concentrating at the point of impact just as the beam struck. The force pushed him back, his feet dragging across the ground, but he held his position.
Eric gritted his teeth and adjusted, letting the force travel across the reinforced layer instead of stopping it outright. The energy dispersed along his arm and into the ground, reducing the strain on his body.
He moved again. This time, instead of waiting for them to surround him, Eric rushed straight into the center of the group. His movements were faster now, sharper. Every strike was deliberate, every shift in energy precise.
He ducked under one attack, redirected another, reinforced his leg mid-motion and drove a kick upward that launched a Sentinel into the air. Before it could fall, he grabbed it, pushed his energy outward, and reinforced the machine itself just enough—Then slammed it down into the others.
The impact sent several of them collapsing. From the sidelines, Momo smiled slightly. "He's applying it externally without hesitation now."
Melissa nodded. "And his reaction time is way better."
The numbers were still against him. Even with reduced power, the Sentinels kept coming, forcing Eric to stay in constant motion. His breathing grew heavier, his muscles beginning to strain, but his control didn't falter.
If anything, it became sharper.
Tony leaned back against a wall and saw the faint grin that was forming in his cousin's face, "Heh, seems like he's enjoying this more than he's letting on"
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