Over the span of the next two weeks, I had a clone that would either instruct Raven on meditation techniques or guide Kara to train while I was working on the furies. I also had another clone excavate another place for a new training chamber further down since I now knew an improved training chamber was designed while I had been on Almerac.
With that being taken care of, my main body made a lot of progress with my plan to control these new gods, though I put Harriet into a comatose state a week ago. Wasn't sure when or if she could naturally recover completely, but it gave me the opportunity to see how to mend someone's mind, so that was helpful.
Occasionally, I also sent out a Clone to help the Justice League, bonding times, and all that jazz. It was mostly disaster recovery and some small villains that worked internationally for numerous inane reasons.
In the beginning, multi-tasking like that was stressful on my mind. Doing four things simultaneously took me some time to eventually get used to it. My success was perhaps most attributed to my visit to Billy Numerous, the meta that could clone himself, to compare his clones with mine.
Once I became more efficient, I used my clones for many things, which helped me make progress with my projects, especially my training chamber upgrades. True, they were mostly there to sort some things out, tell the necessary people what I wanted them to do or prepare for my future projects, like my time machine.
All in all, there were a lot of things in motion now. There was a downside to this entire process, though. I was mentally exhausted.
I couldn't make my clones completely autonomous, so it just felt like I was doing a lot of work at the same time. Think of having to do 4 full-time jobs at the same time. I was pretty sure I almost burned out after these two weeks. Not to mention that making clones slowed my healing a bit as well.
Of course, this didn't prevent me from getting excited, especially after placing the last machine into my training chamber's bedroom. Oh, boy. There were a lot of gadgets I had now.
First the range, I mean the actual distance, the diameter from the time-slowing device, and the artificial gravity increased, which was why I expanded the area of my training chamber to the devices' current max, so I had dug out a cave of 50 meters in all directions underneath of my house.
Not only that, but the intensity of the gravity could also be increased to 500g and there were already new designs to upgrade it in a few months, but that was the current limit. I doubted it would help a lot, but it was better than the previous 100g.
The time inside could be sped up to 10x of normal, everything above was only theoretically safe, there were some research in progress to see if the calculations were correct, but for now I didn't need to worry about having any side-effects because of the rapid changes in time. There was the problem with a lack of energy, but the amount of plutonium would hopefully hold on for long enough, so I could smoothly replace it with my ki as the energy source.
The research regarding the device that absorbed ki was going on slowly. I still didn't have a head-scientists for energy, so the progress wasn't going too well. There were people already working on that, but it was all theoretical right now.
It currently seemed like they wanted to investigate some rumors of a mystical artifact that was said to be able to steal life force which we might use to either create another device or as the core of our device.
Getting these potentially useful artifacts was bothersome, since they were pieces from a museum. I would let Westmob handle these things. I could go around the world and steal all these artifacts, but I didn't feel like doing it, so I didn't.
The time machine was now a project in progress as well, that was currently being worked on in San Francisco with the not complete energy research team. Overall, I had four research teams who worked on absorbing ki, slowing time, travelling through time, and increasing gravity respectively. They were also working together on some things, since there was some overlap in the research.
Besides the devices that are being worked on here on earth, there was also the medical machine that I had just placed in my second bedroom. Maxima had sent it over to help me with my recovery. I probably only needed to spend another day inside and I would be at my peak again, which, in fact, was long overdue.
With a few pressed buttons, everything was in order. I stepped inside naked, put on the mask, and closed the door before the liquid flowed inside. With my eyes closed, I let my clones return to me. I instantly felt the mental strain disappear. With that in mind, I healed myself with my ki, while I felt my body absorbing the nutrients in the liquid.
15 hours later, I was as fresh as ever. The liquid was drained, and the door opened up. It was quite convenient that the liquid would be automatically produced out of water, so it would be ready for the next patient. Only after another month I would have to replace the contents of the medical pod with new nutrients. Maxima would soon send some over to last me for some time.
I stretched a bit, feeling amazing with no discomfort anymore. After getting dressed, I stepped out of my training bedroom and into the now massive hall of my training chamber.
The design of my training chamber had changed with the size as well. There was no middle pillar where previously the manual controls for the gravity were placed at. The simplistic AI that I could command to control the artificial gravity was still there, but in case there was a problem, I had placed the manual controls next to the entrance.
My training chamber would be useful for the time being, while upgrades were still being worked on. The future looked bright. I would just need to pay attention to my training and then my strength would soar.
Though my strength was already off the charts. I could feel the strength strumming throughout my body. An unbelievable 30 times increase in my strength compared to prior my fight with Darkseid. I was probably sitting comfortably at 120 million pl. Even my Ikari state would be overkill for Darkseid, though I wasn't just there yet to clap Darkseid in my base, but that wouldn't take me too long to reach either.
For the time being, I first needed to turn the furies into my people and see if I could somehow learn to generate god ki through them. If I succeeded in that, the increase would be boundless. Even mastering all the Super Saiyan forms up to Super Saiyan 4 paled against being a god.
Of course, mastering the normal Super Saiyan form was something I would do, regardless. Since it boiled down to being in the Super Saiyan state constantly, I could master it while searching for the method to godhood.
In terms of transformation, I would have my hands full for the next months or even years, but techniques needed my attention as well. What came to my mind were obviously the most powerful ones, like Ultra Instinct or Ultra Ego, but I wasn't sure if I could learn these. They were techniques of the gods and angels, after all, and I wasn't sure if it was something that one could stumble into.
Those might be out of reach for now, but something else didn't seem impossible to learn on my own, even if Vegeta and Goku had learned it from mentors. Spirit Control. An advanced way of ki manipulation used by the Yardrats.
The reason I thought it wasn't impossible to learn on my own was the fact that I already knew some techniques that were abilities attained through Spirit control. My cloning technique, or my healing, were abilities that were achievable through Spirit Control.
Currently, I might not use the exact same method they did, but it would give me an idea of where to start. In a panel or two, Vegeta's training for Spirit Control was also seen. Spiritual training, involving the practitioner balancing on spiky poles. It sounded simple enough, but I doubted it would be easy.
Once I was able to achieve balance in body and mind, whatever that meant, it might give me ideas on how to use the other techniques that the Yardrats could use. Forced Spirit Fission, forcefully splitting and then manipulating the energy from the target, would be incredibly useful. I imagined myself shattering any magical barriers that I hit. With that, I could have separated Kara from the Demon with one hit...
Even if I couldn't learn that I should be able to get a hang on Instant transmission since it was just a 'basic' ability one could achieve through Spirit Control. Honestly, there was almost too much to explore. Thankfully, my time-slowing device would be incredibly helpful to accelerate my growth.
I wanted to test out my strength, but now I needed to head off to the Watchtower. I had monitor duty. Instead of going out to fight someone or train with Kara and Raven, I had to sit in front of a monitor, not the way I liked to spend my time. Well, even if I went out for a fight, there was probably hardly anyone that could match me.
Though it would help me get used to my speed in a more complex scenario, like rescuing someone out of a building as if it was a parkour-path for flying...
Well, it was better than personally going to the Watchtower. Just sending my clone there was enough. I couldn't test out my newfound strength, but at least I could focus on my techniques for now. My clone sat down in front of the monitor and watched the news of the world for something to happen while I trained. Sounded like a plan.
...
That's new, I guessed, a giant android attacking the Justice League in the middle of the city. Well, that a giant android attacked wasn't what was new. What was new was the fact that it was winning. It had already taken out Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and Hawkgirl.
Honestly, I was tempted to just swoop down and destroy it, but I was on Watchtower duty, so I just looked on as Superman ripped open its back and let Batman throw a batarang inside. Completely unnecessary since Superman could just use his heat vision, but I guess it was good for #teamwork#.
The batarang was probably one of those exploding types because suddenly a lot of electricity shot out of the robot's mouth as well as smoke. The robot suddenly fell over right at the unconscious Hawkgirl, John, and J'onn.
J'onn and Hawkgirl would probably be fine, but the Green Lantern was another thing. While being unconscious, he was without the protection of his ring and therefore just a human. Fortunately, Flash came for the safe, creating a tornado underneath the robot with the three in the middle.
Wasn't sure why he couldn't throw them to the side or carry them out of danger. Maybe he wasn't fast enough? I didn't know, and I didn't care as long as he got them out. The entire robot and the four were covered in bright light and left behind a big spherical crater in the city after the light subdued. Even the buildings on the side looked like they had a piece cut out of them with a hot knife.
My eyes widened for a moment, wondering what had just happened. Their life force had disappeared almost instantly. Usually, even if someone died, the life force would dissipate fast but not instantly unless they teleported somewhere.
I sighed out in relief and then in annoyance. I looked at the watch and found that my duty would continue for a few hours, which meant finding where they disappeared to, fell in my lap. The things that I couldn't punch were always annoying to deal with. Wait, Batman and Superman were still around. Maybe I could push these bothersome tasks on them.
I looked back on the monitor where the damage was being reported by a news channel. With my hand on my chin, I thought about the battle just now. That scene looked familiar.
...
"...We probably got there through Flash. Tom Turbine explained his theory of an infinite number of parallel dimensions, with each earth occupying the same location and space, but vibrating at a different speed. Because Flash absorbed the energy blast from the robot, he might have matched the vibration frequency rate of their earth, which in turn might have created a tear in the dimensional barriers and brought us there."
Martian Manhunter and Flash explained their little adventure to Superman, Batman, and me.
"Right..." I responded after hearing what they had witnessed on that other earth. "You don't have coincidentally brought some data from his machine, do you?" That guy's research in creating a machine that could cross dimensions might be useful study material.
"...No, we hadn't thought about that at the time." J'onn admitted. Well, after that fever dream-like incident, I'd imagine that one wanted to leave at the first opportunity.
"Man, but you really should have been there! It was so freaky. Those cornball villains with their bad puns and the heroes with their decoder rings. What's up with that? Still Black Siren was a hottie." Flash commented as he talked in one breath and I was tempted to groan.
"Where's GL?" Hawkgirl suddenly approached us before being pointed to a sulking Green Lantern, who looked out of the window at the earth below. She promptly approached him, probably to cheer him up?
"I was meaning to ask, but what's with him?" I asked. With Flash's recounting I had already remembered the episode of this incident. However, even though I knew why he wasn't feeling alright after going through that and could relate to his feelings, I still probed.
"The heroes from Justice Guild were comic book characters and GL was a fan of theirs." Martian Manhunter responded.
"Huh? Comic book characters?" I sounded confused, but I was more curious about how the others reacted to this kind of scenario.
"Mhmm. I theorize that the creators of the comics must have had a subconscious link to that earth, and what they thought was their creativity was actually a flash of the Guild's real exploits." J'onn calmly explained.
"That's... weird to think about." I commented, which was quickly supported by Flash.
"Yeah, tell me about it, Shall!" Flash said while resting an arm over my shoulder... Did he call be Shall? Does he want to make a shall not pass joke? Wait, was lord of the rings a thing on this earth?
"Hm. Do you think there is another reality where we are comic book characters? You know where our life is being recorded by someone only to publish it to the world." I asked, thinking back to my past life where I would probably be in a fanfic at most. No way in hell they would get all the licenses to create a genuine crossover. I could see them giving the idea some thought.
J'onn was the first to react. "If there are truly infinite universes, it is a matter of certainty." Superman just supported the idea, while Batman gave no answer. Was he panicking that there were potentially other universes that knew of him?
He was probably already making plans, just in case. I liked the idea that I gave Batman paranoia, besides me being a powerful alien, of course. Maybe I should give him a visit in his cave and leave behind a present...
"Yeah. I could imagine my popularity even on other earths..." Flash nodded to himself as he rambled on. Full in the fantasy that he would be extremely popular with women.
Hawkgirl and GL approached us after they had been melancholically watching the starry sight behind the earth.
"Alright, Imma head out." I had enough of being stuck with monitor duty. At least, I didn't have to take samples back from where they disappeared, like Superman and Batman. Superman gave me a nod, probably to show his appreciation that I worked overtime.
Apparently, I was known as the guy that would come and leave on the dot. Was that a bad thing? Well, regardless of the answer, fuck working unpaid overtime, not that I was paid at all since the Justice League wasn't really a thing that was known to the world. We probably didn't even pay taxes.
The others said their goodbyes as well or headed out with me. Shortly after we separated, and I was alone, I dispersed my clone and focused on my task. I was busy messing with Gilotina's mind back in her cell.
I had decided against using Stompa as my second test subject because even though Gilotina was a bit more skilled than the others and had some leadership qualities as well as practically swords as arms, I already had another that was more skilled and a better leader.
Sword-like arms that could cut through anything were tempting, but for crowd control and for using the environment, Stompa's ability to cause ground trembles by changing her body's density was more useful.
Besides, after all that testing, I was confident that I could heal their mind if I messed them up a bit, but I had only tested it with an insane woman. I wanted to make sure it was the same with a 'normal' person. Another thing I wanted to accomplish was to see how someone's cognitive abilities were affected when I messed with their mind and healed it again. An already insane person wasn't a good baseline for that.
For that, I needed a relatively normal person to measure her reactions before and after. I had forced her through some tests beforehand and soon she would do them again with the only change that I would be her master. No, I don't mean a kinky master. Get your mind out of the gutter.
After finishing my brief trip through her memory lane, I made my way out of the improvised cell and into my new gigantic training chamb- hall. I guessed it was more fitting to call it a training hall. I looked around and I couldn't help but grin widely.
"This is so awesome." I said, still excited to see the changes while ignoring the loud booming sound that resounded in the hall due to the clash between my clone and Kara. She skidded backward for several meters. Good for her that my existing clones didn't gain in strength after another was dissipated, though I could probably accomplish that after refining my cloning technique.
Instead of only my main body regaining the strength of a dispersed clone I would distribute it among my other remaining clones. It shouldn't be too hard to do that. There were still some other flaws that needed smoothing out, but at least they were getting more autonomous. Something that time and practice would improve in the future.
Raven was on the side levitating cross-legged as my clone stood behind her with its hands beside her head as it used telepathy to disturb her, which had minimal success. She had been training less nowadays because she was occasionally helping in Jump City.
They were still building their headquarters, but with Cyborg's help, I heard it had some fascinating high-tech functions. They were already done with their individual rooms since they needed little input from Cyborg, so they could theoretically sleep there already.
I suspected Batman had sent some people to help construct their tower as well, so the tower's construction was coming along quickly, which apparently wasn't appreciated by Robin. Honestly, I wanted to talk with Robin and ask him what happened between him and Batman, but I was currently too busy to care about these things.
Raven said that she had her room set up there as well, but she would still stay over here for now. Since their hero activities in Jump City hadn't taken its full course yet, she was still training hard with us every day, and it was more convenient to stay over.
I didn't want to disturb the two and was about to head out and grab something to eat when Raven released a deep sigh before she opened her eyes. She saw me heading out and approached me instead of talking to my clone, which I had noticed she would usually do.
I asked her about it and she responded she couldn't get a clear emotional response from the clones. She would talk to them and get the emotional response a bit delayed from somewhere else, my main body, and because of it, she felt weird talking to them, which was understandable, I guessed?
I usually never sensed anyone's emotions, since I never cared for most people's feelings. Why would I want to know how the cashier felt about me buying groceries amounting to dozens of people?
Though that didn't mean I didn't understand why she would usually sense the emotions of the surrounding people. She usually did it because she had been on guard since she was hiding away from cultists and demons, but I didn't have that problem.
"It seems like you struggle a lot. Want my help? My expertise might be useful." Raven asked, and I didn't understand what she meant for a moment before realizing that she was talking about me 'helping' the new gods. Her expertise in emotions would truly help in solving brainwashing, but that's not what I was doing, was it?
"Thanks, appreciate it, but I am fine. Are you bored with your training already?" I asked, since the routine I gave her had changed little and there wasn't a need to in the near future. She had been growing splendidly.
"N-no, sir- *cough* I mean, not really, Nate. It was just that I noticed you are spending a lot of time on this, and I thought you would want to get it done soon." There it was again. She sometimes used weird phrases like that. Being called Sir was one of the milder ones. I usually hear Kara giggling, so I guessed it was an inside joke or something?
My dreams had taken a weird turn lately because of it as well.
"Hmm. No, it's alright. It's good practice for me as well." I responded. There was just no way that I would let her help me, otherwise, my not-so-well-meant attempts of 'curing them of their brainwashing' would be easily discovered by her and I didn't want to summon a fallout with her.
"If you think so." Raven relented. She wasn't the type to push her presence on others. I nodded and was about to head out again when I decided to just ask her. "Hey, I noticed that you and Kara had been acting strange lately. Is everything alright?"
Her eyes widened a smidgen before she answered with a shake of her head, "No, we are just teasing each other."
"Yeah, we are just goofing around. You know, as best friends do." Kara said, having appeared right next to us almost instantaneously. With her super hearing, it was not surprising that she listened in on our conversation. My clone, who had been ignored, was now floating awkwardly in the air before I dispersed him.
I looked at Kara's stiff smile before I returned my gaze to Raven. "If she is bullying you, tell me. I will give her a stern talk."
The corners of Kara's mouth twitched when she heard this. "I will let you know she is bullying me as well! I mean, we are just teasing each other..."
"...Wait. When? I usually have clones around and until now I only noticed you commandeering Raven around."
Kara was getting nervous, as did Raven. These two troublemakers were hiding something from me, so, like a sensible man, I decided to take the only correct course of action. I put the two in a headlock before messing up their hair and spanking them with my telekinesis.
After several dozens of minutes of tickling torture and dizzying them by spinning them around, they still didn't relent, so I gave up for now and let them have their little secret. I really needed to grab something to eat from upstairs before I looked at the watch to see how much time I still got.
It made me happy to see that it would only take half an hour until their arrival. I had even confirmed the time again after I called them. 20 minutes later, my kitchen with the cold storage arrived.
I had them unpack it in front of my house, which made them quite happy that I didn't need them to carry it inside and install it. After I sent them away, I carried everything inside and headed downstairs.
I entered the way toward my old training chamber, but in its place was a big rectangular hole in the ground. There was no elevator, ladders, or stairs. It was just a well-lit hole. One had to jump down and fly up to get in or out. I still wanted to install a steel plate to cover it in the future. Everyone that was using this training hall, Kara, Raven, and I, could easily get in and out, so things like stairs were unnecessary.
With a 60-meter drop, I landed in front of my new training hall's entrance. I carried everything inside and quickly installed my kitchen and cold storage at their designated spot. Beforehand, I had already researched everything to know what to look out for during the installment, so I got it done quickly.
With this, I could truly live down here if I had enough food. I would only have to stock up on healing-nutritions and food and my training arc could begin. Technically, I already wanted to focus on training now, but there were some things I needed to take care of first.
If those that sent out Metallo had the fantastic idea of attacking me again and accidentally destroyed my new training hall, I would be truly mad, so to prevent another setback, I would nip that threat in the bud.
So, after it got darker and the two girls went to bed, I made my move. With my senses stretched out, covering the entire planet, I quickly found my target. I tracked Metallo's life force and created a clone to head there.
The clone was completely dark, seemingly covered in a high-tech full-body suit. That was something I had wondered about and had investigated the moment the idea came to me. The clone was a copy of me and the closer it was to me, the more benefits from its experience I would get and the stronger it was.
So, for the sense of training and gaining experience, it was best if it was close to me as possible, but what if I didn't want it to resemble me?
It was just ki manipulated into taking form. There was no good reason it had to look like me or even wear the clothes I wore if I didn't want it to, so I tried to change it. First the clothes, then the make-up of the body and I quickly found a problem.
Maybe it was because I knew my body that my ki had difficulties to take on a different shape. Creating a random female body, for example, was more difficult than a generic male body since I was a man. Even the generic male body had to be closer to my build than not. It was too difficult to form something else, but slight adjustments were all I needed.
Just a slightly different stature and generic features were enough to work with. I quickly got to work and came up with this clone clad fully in black. Even if one took its clothes off, nobody could identify or connect him with me.
With that in mind, going forwards I would use this clone template when I acted as Hakai for Westmob or for things like this. My clone quickly made his way through the night as he headed towards where the life force of Metallo was residing.
Over the span of the next two weeks, I had a clone that would either instruct Raven on meditation techniques or guide Kara to train while I was working on the furies. I also had another clone excavate another place for a new training chamber further down since I now knew an improved training chamber was designed while I had been on Almerac.
With that being taken care of, my main body made a lot of progress with my plan to control these new gods, though I put Harriet into a comatose state a week ago. Wasn't sure when or if she could naturally recover completely, but it gave me the opportunity to see how to mend someone's mind, so that was helpful.
Occasionally, I also sent out a Clone to help the Justice League, bonding times, and all that jazz. It was mostly disaster recovery and some small villains that worked internationally for numerous inane reasons.
In the beginning, multi-tasking like that was stressful on my mind. Doing four things simultaneously took me some time to eventually get used to it. My success was perhaps most attributed to my visit to Billy Numerous, the meta that could clone himself, to compare his clones with mine.
Once I became more efficient, I used my clones for many things, which helped me make progress with my projects, especially my training chamber upgrades. True, they were mostly there to sort some things out, tell the necessary people what I wanted them to do or prepare for my future projects, like my time machine.
All in all, there were a lot of things in motion now. There was a downside to this entire process, though. I was mentally exhausted.
I couldn't make my clones completely autonomous, so it just felt like I was doing a lot of work at the same time. Think of having to do 4 full-time jobs at the same time. I was pretty sure I almost burned out after these two weeks. Not to mention that making clones slowed my healing a bit as well.
Of course, this didn't prevent me from getting excited, especially after placing the last machine into my training chamber's bedroom. Oh, boy. There were a lot of gadgets I had now.
First the range, I mean the actual distance, the diameter from the time-slowing device, and the artificial gravity increased, which was why I expanded the area of my training chamber to the devices' current max, so I had dug out a cave of 50 meters in all directions underneath of my house.
Not only that, but the intensity of the gravity could also be increased to 500g and there were already new designs to upgrade it in a few months, but that was the current limit. I doubted it would help a lot, but it was better than the previous 100g.
The time inside could be sped up to 10x of normal, everything above was only theoretically safe, there were some research in progress to see if the calculations were correct, but for now I didn't need to worry about having any side-effects because of the rapid changes in time. There was the problem with a lack of energy, but the amount of plutonium would hopefully hold on for long enough, so I could smoothly replace it with my ki as the energy source.
The research regarding the device that absorbed ki was going on slowly. I still didn't have a head-scientists for energy, so the progress wasn't going too well. There were people already working on that, but it was all theoretical right now.
It currently seemed like they wanted to investigate some rumors of a mystical artifact that was said to be able to steal life force which we might use to either create another device or as the core of our device.
Getting these potentially useful artifacts was bothersome, since they were pieces from a museum. I would let Westmob handle these things. I could go around the world and steal all these artifacts, but I didn't feel like doing it, so I didn't.
The time machine was now a project in progress as well, that was currently being worked on in San Francisco with the not complete energy research team. Overall, I had four research teams who worked on absorbing ki, slowing time, travelling through time, and increasing gravity respectively. They were also working together on some things, since there was some overlap in the research.
Besides the devices that are being worked on here on earth, there was also the medical machine that I had just placed in my second bedroom. Maxima had sent it over to help me with my recovery. I probably only needed to spend another day inside and I would be at my peak again, which, in fact, was long overdue.
With a few pressed buttons, everything was in order. I stepped inside naked, put on the mask, and closed the door before the liquid flowed inside. With my eyes closed, I let my clones return to me. I instantly felt the mental strain disappear. With that in mind, I healed myself with my ki, while I felt my body absorbing the nutrients in the liquid.
15 hours later, I was as fresh as ever. The liquid was drained, and the door opened up. It was quite convenient that the liquid would be automatically produced out of water, so it would be ready for the next patient. Only after another month I would have to replace the contents of the medical pod with new nutrients. Maxima would soon send some over to last me for some time.
I stretched a bit, feeling amazing with no discomfort anymore. After getting dressed, I stepped out of my training bedroom and into the now massive hall of my training chamber.
The design of my training chamber had changed with the size as well. There was no middle pillar where previously the manual controls for the gravity were placed at. The simplistic AI that I could command to control the artificial gravity was still there, but in case there was a problem, I had placed the manual controls next to the entrance.
My training chamber would be useful for the time being, while upgrades were still being worked on. The future looked bright. I would just need to pay attention to my training and then my strength would soar.
Though my strength was already off the charts. I could feel the strength strumming throughout my body. An unbelievable 30 times increase in my strength compared to prior my fight with Darkseid. I was probably sitting comfortably at 120 million pl. Even my Ikari state would be overkill for Darkseid, though I wasn't just there yet to clap Darkseid in my base, but that wouldn't take me too long to reach either.
For the time being, I first needed to turn the furies into my people and see if I could somehow learn to generate god ki through them. If I succeeded in that, the increase would be boundless. Even mastering all the Super Saiyan forms up to Super Saiyan 4 paled against being a god.
Of course, mastering the normal Super Saiyan form was something I would do, regardless. Since it boiled down to being in the Super Saiyan state constantly, I could master it while searching for the method to godhood.
In terms of transformation, I would have my hands full for the next months or even years, but techniques needed my attention as well. What came to my mind were obviously the most powerful ones, like Ultra Instinct or Ultra Ego, but I wasn't sure if I could learn these. They were techniques of the gods and angels, after all, and I wasn't sure if it was something that one could stumble into.
Those might be out of reach for now, but something else didn't seem impossible to learn on my own, even if Vegeta and Goku had learned it from mentors. Spirit Control. An advanced way of ki manipulation used by the Yardrats.
The reason I thought it wasn't impossible to learn on my own was the fact that I already knew some techniques that were abilities attained through Spirit control. My cloning technique, or my healing, were abilities that were achievable through Spirit Control.
Currently, I might not use the exact same method they did, but it would give me an idea of where to start. In a panel or two, Vegeta's training for Spirit Control was also seen. Spiritual training, involving the practitioner balancing on spiky poles. It sounded simple enough, but I doubted it would be easy.
Once I was able to achieve balance in body and mind, whatever that meant, it might give me ideas on how to use the other techniques that the Yardrats could use. Forced Spirit Fission, forcefully splitting and then manipulating the energy from the target, would be incredibly useful. I imagined myself shattering any magical barriers that I hit. With that, I could have separated Kara from the Demon with one hit...
Even if I couldn't learn that I should be able to get a hang on Instant transmission since it was just a 'basic' ability one could achieve through Spirit Control. Honestly, there was almost too much to explore. Thankfully, my time-slowing device would be incredibly helpful to accelerate my growth.
I wanted to test out my strength, but now I needed to head off to the Watchtower. I had monitor duty. Instead of going out to fight someone or train with Kara and Raven, I had to sit in front of a monitor, not the way I liked to spend my time. Well, even if I went out for a fight, there was probably hardly anyone that could match me.
Though it would help me get used to my speed in a more complex scenario, like rescuing someone out of a building as if it was a parkour-path for flying...
Well, it was better than personally going to the Watchtower. Just sending my clone there was enough. I couldn't test out my newfound strength, but at least I could focus on my techniques for now. My clone sat down in front of the monitor and watched the news of the world for something to happen while I trained. Sounded like a plan.
...
That's new, I guessed, a giant android attacking the Justice League in the middle of the city. Well, that a giant android attacked wasn't what was new. What was new was the fact that it was winning. It had already taken out Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and Hawkgirl.
Honestly, I was tempted to just swoop down and destroy it, but I was on Watchtower duty, so I just looked on as Superman ripped open its back and let Batman throw a batarang inside. Completely unnecessary since Superman could just use his heat vision, but I guess it was good for #teamwork#.
The batarang was probably one of those exploding types because suddenly a lot of electricity shot out of the robot's mouth as well as smoke. The robot suddenly fell over right at the unconscious Hawkgirl, John, and J'onn.
J'onn and Hawkgirl would probably be fine, but the Green Lantern was another thing. While being unconscious, he was without the protection of his ring and therefore just a human. Fortunately, Flash came for the safe, creating a tornado underneath the robot with the three in the middle.
Wasn't sure why he couldn't throw them to the side or carry them out of danger. Maybe he wasn't fast enough? I didn't know, and I didn't care as long as he got them out. The entire robot and the four were covered in bright light and left behind a big spherical crater in the city after the light subdued. Even the buildings on the side looked like they had a piece cut out of them with a hot knife.
My eyes widened for a moment, wondering what had just happened. Their life force had disappeared almost instantly. Usually, even if someone died, the life force would dissipate fast but not instantly unless they teleported somewhere.
I sighed out in relief and then in annoyance. I looked at the watch and found that my duty would continue for a few hours, which meant finding where they disappeared to, fell in my lap. The things that I couldn't punch were always annoying to deal with. Wait, Batman and Superman were still around. Maybe I could push these bothersome tasks on them.
I looked back on the monitor where the damage was being reported by a news channel. With my hand on my chin, I thought about the battle just now. That scene looked familiar.
...
"...We probably got there through Flash. Tom Turbine explained his theory of an infinite number of parallel dimensions, with each earth occupying the same location and space, but vibrating at a different speed. Because Flash absorbed the energy blast from the robot, he might have matched the vibration frequency rate of their earth, which in turn might have created a tear in the dimensional barriers and brought us there."
Martian Manhunter and Flash explained their little adventure to Superman, Batman, and me.
"Right..." I responded after hearing what they had witnessed on that other earth. "You don't have coincidentally brought some data from his machine, do you?" That guy's research in creating a machine that could cross dimensions might be useful study material.
"...No, we hadn't thought about that at the time." J'onn admitted. Well, after that fever dream-like incident, I'd imagine that one wanted to leave at the first opportunity.
"Man, but you really should have been there! It was so freaky. Those cornball villains with their bad puns and the heroes with their decoder rings. What's up with that? Still Black Siren was a hottie." Flash commented as he talked in one breath and I was tempted to groan.
"Where's GL?" Hawkgirl suddenly approached us before being pointed to a sulking Green Lantern, who looked out of the window at the earth below. She promptly approached him, probably to cheer him up?
"I was meaning to ask, but what's with him?" I asked. With Flash's recounting I had already remembered the episode of this incident. However, even though I knew why he wasn't feeling alright after going through that and could relate to his feelings, I still probed.
"The heroes from Justice Guild were comic book characters and GL was a fan of theirs." Martian Manhunter responded.
"Huh? Comic book characters?" I sounded confused, but I was more curious about how the others reacted to this kind of scenario.
"Mhmm. I theorize that the creators of the comics must have had a subconscious link to that earth, and what they thought was their creativity was actually a flash of the Guild's real exploits." J'onn calmly explained.
"That's... weird to think about." I commented, which was quickly supported by Flash.
"Yeah, tell me about it, Shall!" Flash said while resting an arm over my shoulder... Did he call be Shall? Does he want to make a shall not pass joke? Wait, was lord of the rings a thing on this earth?
"Hm. Do you think there is another reality where we are comic book characters? You know where our life is being recorded by someone only to publish it to the world." I asked, thinking back to my past life where I would probably be in a fanfic at most. No way in hell they would get all the licenses to create a genuine crossover. I could see them giving the idea some thought.
J'onn was the first to react. "If there are truly infinite universes, it is a matter of certainty." Superman just supported the idea, while Batman gave no answer. Was he panicking that there were potentially other universes that knew of him?
He was probably already making plans, just in case. I liked the idea that I gave Batman paranoia, besides me being a powerful alien, of course. Maybe I should give him a visit in his cave and leave behind a present...
"Yeah. I could imagine my popularity even on other earths..." Flash nodded to himself as he rambled on. Full in the fantasy that he would be extremely popular with women.
Hawkgirl and GL approached us after they had been melancholically watching the starry sight behind the earth.
"Alright, Imma head out." I had enough of being stuck with monitor duty. At least, I didn't have to take samples back from where they disappeared, like Superman and Batman. Superman gave me a nod, probably to show his appreciation that I worked overtime.
Apparently, I was known as the guy that would come and leave on the dot. Was that a bad thing? Well, regardless of the answer, fuck working unpaid overtime, not that I was paid at all since the Justice League wasn't really a thing that was known to the world. We probably didn't even pay taxes.
The others said their goodbyes as well or headed out with me. Shortly after we separated, and I was alone, I dispersed my clone and focused on my task. I was busy messing with Gilotina's mind back in her cell.
I had decided against using Stompa as my second test subject because even though Gilotina was a bit more skilled than the others and had some leadership qualities as well as practically swords as arms, I already had another that was more skilled and a better leader.
Sword-like arms that could cut through anything were tempting, but for crowd control and for using the environment, Stompa's ability to cause ground trembles by changing her body's density was more useful.
Besides, after all that testing, I was confident that I could heal their mind if I messed them up a bit, but I had only tested it with an insane woman. I wanted to make sure it was the same with a 'normal' person. Another thing I wanted to accomplish was to see how someone's cognitive abilities were affected when I messed with their mind and healed it again. An already insane person wasn't a good baseline for that.
For that, I needed a relatively normal person to measure her reactions before and after. I had forced her through some tests beforehand and soon she would do them again with the only change that I would be her master. No, I don't mean a kinky master. Get your mind out of the gutter.
After finishing my brief trip through her memory lane, I made my way out of the improvised cell and into my new gigantic training chamb- hall. I guessed it was more fitting to call it a training hall. I looked around and I couldn't help but grin widely.
"This is so awesome." I said, still excited to see the changes while ignoring the loud booming sound that resounded in the hall due to the clash between my clone and Kara. She skidded backward for several meters. Good for her that my existing clones didn't gain in strength after another was dissipated, though I could probably accomplish that after refining my cloning technique.
Instead of only my main body regaining the strength of a dispersed clone I would distribute it among my other remaining clones. It shouldn't be too hard to do that. There were still some other flaws that needed smoothing out, but at least they were getting more autonomous. Something that time and practice would improve in the future.
Raven was on the side levitating cross-legged as my clone stood behind her with its hands beside her head as it used telepathy to disturb her, which had minimal success. She had been training less nowadays because she was occasionally helping in Jump City.
They were still building their headquarters, but with Cyborg's help, I heard it had some fascinating high-tech functions. They were already done with their individual rooms since they needed little input from Cyborg, so they could theoretically sleep there already.
I suspected Batman had sent some people to help construct their tower as well, so the tower's construction was coming along quickly, which apparently wasn't appreciated by Robin. Honestly, I wanted to talk with Robin and ask him what happened between him and Batman, but I was currently too busy to care about these things.
Raven said that she had her room set up there as well, but she would still stay over here for now. Since their hero activities in Jump City hadn't taken its full course yet, she was still training hard with us every day, and it was more convenient to stay over.
I didn't want to disturb the two and was about to head out and grab something to eat when Raven released a deep sigh before she opened her eyes. She saw me heading out and approached me instead of talking to my clone, which I had noticed she would usually do.
I asked her about it and she responded she couldn't get a clear emotional response from the clones. She would talk to them and get the emotional response a bit delayed from somewhere else, my main body, and because of it, she felt weird talking to them, which was understandable, I guessed?
I usually never sensed anyone's emotions, since I never cared for most people's feelings. Why would I want to know how the cashier felt about me buying groceries amounting to dozens of people?
Though that didn't mean I didn't understand why she would usually sense the emotions of the surrounding people. She usually did it because she had been on guard since she was hiding away from cultists and demons, but I didn't have that problem.
"It seems like you struggle a lot. Want my help? My expertise might be useful." Raven asked, and I didn't understand what she meant for a moment before realizing that she was talking about me 'helping' the new gods. Her expertise in emotions would truly help in solving brainwashing, but that's not what I was doing, was it?
"Thanks, appreciate it, but I am fine. Are you bored with your training already?" I asked, since the routine I gave her had changed little and there wasn't a need to in the near future. She had been growing splendidly.
"N-no, sir- *cough* I mean, not really, Nate. It was just that I noticed you are spending a lot of time on this, and I thought you would want to get it done soon." There it was again. She sometimes used weird phrases like that. Being called Sir was one of the milder ones. I usually hear Kara giggling, so I guessed it was an inside joke or something?
My dreams had taken a weird turn lately because of it as well.
"Hmm. No, it's alright. It's good practice for me as well." I responded. There was just no way that I would let her help me, otherwise, my not-so-well-meant attempts of 'curing them of their brainwashing' would be easily discovered by her and I didn't want to summon a fallout with her.
"If you think so." Raven relented. She wasn't the type to push her presence on others. I nodded and was about to head out again when I decided to just ask her. "Hey, I noticed that you and Kara had been acting strange lately. Is everything alright?"
Her eyes widened a smidgen before she answered with a shake of her head, "No, we are just teasing each other."
"Yeah, we are just goofing around. You know, as best friends do." Kara said, having appeared right next to us almost instantaneously. With her super hearing, it was not surprising that she listened in on our conversation. My clone, who had been ignored, was now floating awkwardly in the air before I dispersed him.
I looked at Kara's stiff smile before I returned my gaze to Raven. "If she is bullying you, tell me. I will give her a stern talk."
The corners of Kara's mouth twitched when she heard this. "I will let you know she is bullying me as well! I mean, we are just teasing each other..."
"...Wait. When? I usually have clones around and until now I only noticed you commandeering Raven around."
Kara was getting nervous, as did Raven. These two troublemakers were hiding something from me, so, like a sensible man, I decided to take the only correct course of action. I put the two in a headlock before messing up their hair and spanking them with my telekinesis.
After several dozens of minutes of tickling torture and dizzying them by spinning them around, they still didn't relent, so I gave up for now and let them have their little secret. I really needed to grab something to eat from upstairs before I looked at the watch to see how much time I still got.
It made me happy to see that it would only take half an hour until their arrival. I had even confirmed the time again after I called them. 20 minutes later, my kitchen with the cold storage arrived.
I had them unpack it in front of my house, which made them quite happy that I didn't need them to carry it inside and install it. After I sent them away, I carried everything inside and headed downstairs.
I entered the way toward my old training chamber, but in its place was a big rectangular hole in the ground. There was no elevator, ladders, or stairs. It was just a well-lit hole. One had to jump down and fly up to get in or out. I still wanted to install a steel plate to cover it in the future. Everyone that was using this training hall, Kara, Raven, and I, could easily get in and out, so things like stairs were unnecessary.
With a 60-meter drop, I landed in front of my new training hall's entrance. I carried everything inside and quickly installed my kitchen and cold storage at their designated spot. Beforehand, I had already researched everything to know what to look out for during the installment, so I got it done quickly.
With this, I could truly live down here if I had enough food. I would only have to stock up on healing-nutritions and food and my training arc could begin. Technically, I already wanted to focus on training now, but there were some things I needed to take care of first.
If those that sent out Metallo had the fantastic idea of attacking me again and accidentally destroyed my new training hall, I would be truly mad, so to prevent another setback, I would nip that threat in the bud.
So, after it got darker and the two girls went to bed, I made my move. With my senses stretched out, covering the entire planet, I quickly found my target. I tracked Metallo's life force and created a clone to head there.
The clone was completely dark, seemingly covered in a high-tech full-body suit. That was something I had wondered about and had investigated the moment the idea came to me. The clone was a copy of me and the closer it was to me, the more benefits from its experience I would get and the stronger it was.
So, for the sense of training and gaining experience, it was best if it was close to me as possible, but what if I didn't want it to resemble me?
It was just ki manipulated into taking form. There was no good reason it had to look like me or even wear the clothes I wore if I didn't want it to, so I tried to change it. First the clothes, then the make-up of the body and I quickly found a problem.
Maybe it was because I knew my body that my ki had difficulties to take on a different shape. Creating a random female body, for example, was more difficult than a generic male body since I was a man. Even the generic male body had to be closer to my build than not. It was too difficult to form something else, but slight adjustments were all I needed.
Just a slightly different stature and generic features were enough to work with. I quickly got to work and came up with this clone clad fully in black. Even if one took its clothes off, nobody could identify or connect him with me.
With that in mind, going forwards I would use this clone template when I acted as Hakai for Westmob or for things like this. My clone quickly made his way through the night as he headed towards where the life force of Metallo was residing.
