In an abandoned warehouse, Mark stood waiting with two large travel suitcases full of money on the floor beside him. While he waited, he was playing a game on his phone, Snake. A few minutes later, the Mauler Twins finally arrived. Both of them were wearing casual clothes. Mark closed the game and put his phone away in his pocket, then got straight to business.
"Where is the device?"
"Here." Mauler Two pulled a box from his coat and handed it to Mark.
Mark took it and opened it up. He smiled at what he saw. The gravity watch was finally in his hands. He quickly strapped it on and began checking its functions. When he powered it on, the screen displayed the time.
"The four buttons on the sides have the same functions a normal watch would have," Mauler One explained.
Mark pressed each button, testing them one by one. The alarm, the light, the stopwatch, all of them worked.
"The middle button is where the function you requested is," Mauler Two said.
Mark pressed it and found that he could lift the screen up. Beneath it was a set of number buttons like an old phone, along with extra buttons marked with a green C and a blue G.
"To call someone, enter the number and press C," Mauler One said.
Mauler Two continued, "It works the same way for the gravity function. Enter the exact number and press G."
"What's the gravity limit?" Mark asked. He wanted to test the function immediately. He had been waiting a whole week for this.
"1,900 g's," Mauler One told him.
"Let's see." Mark began testing.
He input 2 g's. He barely felt anything change, just a slight heaviness, like wearing thick clothes. Curious to see how much he could take, he kept increasing the gravity. He jumped from ten to twenty to thirty, raising it by ten each time. When it reached one thousand g's, everything changed.
He felt everything surrounding him, pressing down on him. His body began screaming for the first time. It was like everything wanted to compress him. But Mark fought back. It took him a while to turn around and face the Mauler Twins, who were shocked to see him handling the increased gravity.
"How much gravity did you input?" Mauler Two sounded worried and concerned. Mark was their source of income. Losing him would be like throwing away a treasure. Even Mauler One, who had been sitting, stood up with worry on his face.
Mark straightened his posture, his smile slowly turning into a smirk. His body was vibrating under the strain. Struggling, he told them, "One... thou... sand... g's."
The Mauler Twins were shocked. A normal human couldn't handle this kind of localized gravity, not even a superpowered one. They began to wonder what Mark really was. An experiment subject? An alien? A cyborg? Their minds raced with possibilities.
Seeing the strain Mark endured, they finally understood why he had asked for a device that could increase gravity from zero to such extreme levels.
Mark began moving his hand, wanting to adjust the gravity. Mauler One pointed at the watch. "You can change it back to baseline gravity by pressing G twice."
But Mark didn't do that. Instead, he lowered the gravity to 950 g's. He could finally move again, though it was only slightly easier than at one thousand.
"We also added a button to turn off the dampening field for combat purposes," Mauler One said.
Mark tilted his head, confused about the dampening field.
Mauler Two noticed this and began explaining. "The device generates two distinct fields. The first is the gravity multiplier, localized exclusively to your biological tissue. Your muscles. Your bones. Your organs. Nothing else."
Mauler One continued the explanation. "The second is an inertial dampening field. It projects a counter-force directly beneath you, distributing your effective weight across a wider surface area. The floor feels pressure, but it doesn't puncture."
"Your tech is amazing," Mark praised them. They had thought far ahead, further than he had. "But I'd like an improved version. More gravity. That'll be my first commission. After that, I'd like you guys to make this for me."
Mark approached them and handed over a piece of paper detailing his next request. He asked, "How much this time around?"
Mauler One began calculating the cost. Labor would run about 2.5 million, plus the tools needed to construct the suit, new equipment, materials, and more.
But Mauler Two brought up a good point. The price could climb much higher. He asked Mark, "How much of an increase do you want?"
"As much as you can manage before I fully master the limits of this gravity watch," Mark said.
"How long would that take?" Mauler One asked. They needed to know how much time they had to build an improved version.
"I don't know. But how about this?" Mark offered a solution. "You guys just keep increasing the limit until I give you a call. At that point, you decide what that version is worth. And forget about the watch functions and the call function. Just focus on the gravity feature."
The Mauler Twins looked at each other and nodded. The solution worked. Mauler One came to a conclusion on the cost. "3.5 million for the suit alone. We can settle on the gravity watch later."
Mauler Two and Mark both nodded in agreement with the estimate.
"Alright. These bags have about three million," Mark said, picking them up and setting them closer to the twins.
Mauler Two opened one up and smiled at the sight of so much money yet again. He stood and offered a handshake. "Deal."
"Deal." Mark shook his hand with a smile.
With that, the two of them walked away like they had never met. Mark flew off, but not at the same speed as before. The lingering weight of the gravity still clung to him. As soon as he was out of their sight, he muttered to himself.
"I don't think I should offer them a permanent position working for me after all."
Mark had decided at the last second to change his mind. His gut told him not to do it, and he trusted it. He was in a world full of superpowers and magic. He needed to listen to his instincts.