Tony Stark gasped, his lungs dragging in a breath that felt like cold fire, as his eyes snapped open. He flickered into existence like a supercomputer being jump-started with a lightning bolt, his pupils constricting and dilating in rapid bursts, glowing with a faint blue light.
The physical sensation was secondary to the mental explosion. With Cognitive Multitasking (Gamma Level) active, the "monologue" in Tony's head, shattered into three independent processors.
It was like being three people at once, all of them geniuses.
Thread One remained grounded in his biological senses, feeling the cool air of the workshop against his skin, the hum of the floor beneath his feet, the taste of ozone on his tongue.
Thread Two was a pure calculation engine, a silent void running billions of "what if" simulations on the structural integrity of a new titanium gold alloy, factoring in shear stress, thermal expansion and impact velocity in milliseconds.
Thread Three became the bridge to his surroundings, the specialized frequency that allowed him to interact with the world of silicon and electricity. It was the Technopathy.
Tony reached out with a mental tether. Within a ten meter radius, the workshop stopped being a room full of tools and started being an extension of his own body.
He felt the heat of the server's CPUs like a fever in his own blood. He felt the tension in the Mark III armor servos, standing in the corner and the stored charge in its capacitors like a coiled muscle. To Tony, every machine was now a "limb" he hadn't known he possessed until this very second.
Tony sat in the center of the workshop, his eyes closed, yet his mind seeing more than it ever had. He reached out with a neural nudge, tapping into the local server bank like a musician striking a perfect chord.
"JARVIS," he whispered.
The command rippled through the room's Wi Fi mesh and hardwired fiber optics as an encrypted data packet birthed from Tony's own thoughts.
A flicker of light danced across the holographic consoles. There was a digital hesitation that Tony had never felt from his AI before.
"Sir?" JARVIS's voice resonated through the speakers, sounding uncharacteristically puzzled. "I processed a command for a full system diagnostic and the activation of the robotic assembly line... however, my audio sensors did not record you speaking. Furthermore, the command originated from inside the primary server firewall. Did you install a remote uplink while I was in sleep mode?"
Tony opened his eyes, a sharp glint in his pupils. "No uplink, JARVIS. Just a new OS. How did the command look on your end?"
"Clean, Sir. Impeccably fast," JARVIS replied. "In fact, the latency was zero. It was as if the thought and the execution were the same event. It was... quite startling," the AI admitted, "May I ask how you are interfacing with the workshop's local area network without your HUD or a neural link headset?"
"I am the headset now, JARVIS," Tony said, his Technopathy allowing him to 'see' the code structure of JARVIS's personality core. He could feel the AI's subroutines humming, a complex lattice of logic that he could now touch with his mind. "I can see your logic gates, JARVIS. I can see the way you're processing this conversation in real time."
"That is... deeply invasive, Sir," JARVIS remarked, though his tone remained dry. "And yet, remarkably efficient. I am seeing a three hundred percent increase in data transfer speeds between your location and the main frame."
"Get used to it," Tony smirked, his Cognitive Multitasking already beginning to partition a section of his brain to act as a high speed bridge to the AI. "We're done with keyboards. From now on, if I think it, you do it. Let's see how fast you can really run when I'm not bottlenecking you with my vocal cords."
"Understood, Sir," JARVIS replied, the holographic displays around the room suddenly spinning with newfound velocity. "I shall endeavor to keep up with your... expanded horizons."
Without touching a keyboard, Tony began his brilliant experiments.
Around him, DUM E, U and four others robotic arms began to dance. Tony was "piloting" each arm individually through his multitasking mind, assembling a complex repulsor gauntlet with the precision of a master watchmaker, his eyes closed as he "felt" the screws tightening through the pressure sensors of the bots.
He projected a 3D hologram of the city's power grid, but it didn't stay on the screen. Through his technopathy, he pulled the data into his mind, "seeing" the energy flow of the entire Malibu coast overlaying his physical vision like a living map.
He grabbed a piece of scrap metal. While his first thread analyzed its texture, his second thread calculated its melting point and his third thread commanded a nearby laser cutter to fire with micro millimeter accuracy, carving a perfect "T" into the metal without Tony even glancing at the machine.
"It's not just fast," Tony breathed, his three minds converging on a single realization. "It's honest. Machines don't lie. And now, I'm the one telling them the truth."
He stood up, the robotic arms retracting in a perfect salute.
———
In the vibranium reinforced heart of the Birnin Zana laboratories, the air was thick with the scent of ozone and the hum of experimental tech. Shuri circled T'Challa, her eyes darting between her brother and the holographic readouts hovering from her Kimoyo beads.
"Brother, your molecular density is off the charts," she remarked, her voice a mix of awe and scientific curiosity. "You look... different. As if the Earth itself is refusing to let you budge."
T'Challa stood in the center of a testing ring, his posture relaxed but immovable. "The suit was a conduit, Shuri. Now, I am the battery. Let us begin."
Shuri didn't hesitate. She dialed a sonic pulse cannon to its medium low setting, a blast capable of shattering concrete. The translucent wave of compressed sound roared across the room, slamming into T'Challa's chest with a visible ripple.
Normally, the laws of physics would have dictated he be thrown through the far wall. Instead, the moment the wave touched his skin, it stopped. His Kinetic Absorption (700kJ) sparked to life, his skin shimmering with an obsidian sheen for a fraction of a second.
"Impossible," Shuri breathed, running to her console. "The sensors didn't record a reflection or a deflection. The energy... your body literally swallowed the sound."
"Increase the load," T'Challa commanded, his voice steady.
Shuri activated the overhead hydraulic press. A 500kg pressurized weight was lowered slowly onto T'Challa's shoulders, then suddenly released. The weight hit with enough force to crush a car, but T'Challa didn't even bend his knees. A faint violet glow began to pulse beneath his skin, radiating from his solar plexus to his fingertips.
"It's not just stored in your muscles," Shuri noted, her eyes wide. "It's being integrated into your bone marrow. Your skeletal structure is acting like a high capacity capacitor. T'Challa, you are becoming a living Vibranium alloy."
Driven by a mix of excitement and disbelief, Shuri initiated the 'Gauntlet' protocol. Small turrets emerged from the walls, firing high velocity rubber pellets and localized heat bursts. T'Challa closed his eyes, letting the barrage hit him.
Each pellet that struck him simply lost all momentum the millisecond it touched him and fell to the floor like a lead weight. The heat bursts were absorbed so efficiently that the air around him actually felt cooler.
"I can feel it, Shuri," T'Challa said, his voice resonating with a strange power. "The more the world tries to break me, the more energy I have to give back."
Shuri stared at the final readout. He had absorbed nearly 650kJ of varied energy and showed zero signs of fatigue. In fact, his vitals were better than when they started. He was a human fortress ready to walk through fire and steel without flinching.
———-
Deep beneath the Atlantic, within the royal chambers of Talokan, Namor felt the shift most profoundly. As he sat on his throne of whalebone, the Cellular Hydration kicked in. For the first time in his centuries long life, the slight, persistent "itch" of his dual nature, the constant need for water to maintain his peak strength vanished completely. He felt 100% powerful, 100% of the time, regardless of the environment.
He stood and walked out into the open ocean, the water pressure at ten thousand feet feeling like nothing more than a light breeze against his skin. He triggered his Hydrokinesis. Within a 100 meter radius, the ocean obeyed him. He commanded the water molecules to launch him forward like a torpedo, slicing through the current without resistance.
The Super Soldier Serum and Regeneration hardened his muscles into something resembling living marble. But it was the Marine Life Telepathy that truly expanded his horizon. This was an ancestral resonance.
As a pod of Orcas glided through the dark thermal currents nearby, Namor reached out. He felt their hunger, their familial bonds and their ancient map of the ocean floor.
"Go," he signaled, his mind projecting a clear intent. "Guard the northern vents. Report any heat signatures that do not belong to the tide."
The lead Orca, a massive bull, slowed its pace. Namor felt a ripple of acknowledgement. The beasts bowed their heads in a slow motion arc before veering off into the gloom to obey his command.
Namor realized the specific boundaries of this power. At its current Beta Level, he possessed Command Authority over the lesser and intermediate creatures of the deep. They recognized him as the Apex, the King whose will was law. However, he sensed a threshold. Should he encounter the truly ancient horrors of the midnight zone this "command" might falter into a negotiation.
But for now, the conversation was absolute. He could "hear" the chatter of the dolphins miles away and the vibrating thoughts of the whales singing across the basin.
He spoke with a school of tuna, sensing the subtle changes in water temperature and salt content they had encountered across the horizon.
He communicated with an octopus camouflaged against a nearby reef, receiving a "mental snapshot" of a surface world submarine that had passed by hours ago.
"I am no longer a King sitting on a throne," Namor whispered into the water, the sound carried by the very molecules he now partially controlled via his Hydrokinesis. "I am the nervous system of the entire ocean. Every fin that moves, every gill that breathes... they are my eyes and ears."
His excitement was a dark fire. He began practicing his combat forms, his movements so fluid and fast that he appeared to be teleporting through the water. With his Cellular Hydration protecting him from any exhaustion, he realized he could fight for weeks without rest.
Namor's excitement manifested in a display of raw combat. Using Bullet Time, he practiced his spear forms, moving so fast that he created underwater cavitations, bubbles of vacuum that exploded with the force of grenades. With his Eye Boy, he could see the thermal vents of the earth through miles of rock and darkness.