Chapter 51: New Powers, New Problems - Initial Mastery (Part 3)
The air in the Adapt-Alliance's hidden base, deep beneath the American Southwest, still hummed with the aftershocks of revelation and the distinct, lingering taste of regret and old socks. Fitz, his face a mixture of awe and utter bewilderment, stared at his hand, which now pulsed with a faint, ethereal purple glow. He'd just swallowed a fruit that tasted like a forgotten nightmare, and now, he could manipulate space. His brain, usually a finely tuned instrument of logic and reason, felt like a broken kaleidoscope, trying to reassemble a reality that no longer made sense.
"No, Fitz! You're creating a localized spatial distortion, not a portal to my coffee mug!" Adam yelled, ducking with practiced ease as a stream of coffee from his mug (which was, indeed, not where it should have been, having been spontaneously teleported a foot to the left) arced across the room, narrowly missing his head. Fitz, looking mortified, had accidentally warped the space around the mug, sending its contents flying in a chaotic arc, a testament to his burgeoning, yet uncontrolled, power.
"My apologies, Adam! The… the spatial vectors are more complex than I anticipated! It's like trying to calculate a four-dimensional chess game in my head, while simultaneously juggling flaming chainsaws and reciting the periodic table backwards! And the variables keep… shifting!" Fitz stammered, his hand still glowing faintly with a purple aura, his eyes wide with a mixture of intellectual frustration and pure, unadulterated excitement. He was trying to create a small, contained "Room" to organize his scattered notes, and instead, he'd turned his desk into a cubist nightmare of floating pens and warped papers.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE: 'LEO FITZ' ROOM-ROOM FRUIT MASTERY AT 15%. RECOMMENDATION: CONTINUED TRAINING. EMPHASIZE CONTROL AND PRECISION. TARGET 'LEO FITZ' LEARNING CURVE ACCELERATED.]
"Fifteen percent? System, you're a harsh critic. He just got this thing yesterday. Give the guy a break. And maybe a less judgmental progress bar," Adam thought, suppressing a sigh. But aloud he said, "It's alright, Fitz. Just remember: less 'mad scientist with a spatial anomaly,' more 'surgical precision.' Think of it as a really, really complicated scalpel. Or a very fancy, invisible box. Start small. Try to move that pen. Just the pen. Don't accidentally send it into orbit. Or into my coffee."
Simmons, meanwhile, was having her own set of issues, though hers were more… organic. She was trying to heal a wilting potted plant Adam had brought into the base, a small act of kindness in their grim surroundings. Instead, the plant had suddenly exploded with vibrant, uncontrolled growth, its leaves unfurling at an alarming rate, nearly engulfing her in a tangle of super-sized foliage. She looked like a startled botanist caught in a jungle, her hand, glowing with a soft, warm light, still outstretched, a look of profound ethical concern on her face.
"Oh dear! It seems I've… overcompensated," Simmons murmured, trying to disentangle herself from the rapidly expanding flora. "The cellular regeneration is far more potent than I anticipated! It's not just healing; it's accelerated growth! The ethical implications of unintended biological proliferation within a confined space… and the potential for ecological imbalance…!" Her scientific mind was already racing through the potential ecological disasters she could accidentally unleash, her compassion warring with her newfound power.
Yelena, who had been observing the chaos from a safe distance, leaning against a wall with her arms crossed, a dry smirk on her face, finally spoke. "Looks like you two are going to be busy. Fitz, try not to accidentally teleport yourself into a wall. Simmons, maybe don't turn the entire base into a jungle. My Light-Light Fruit is much simpler. Mostly just involves running really fast and shooting lasers. Less accidental botanical explosions. And fewer ethical dilemmas, usually." She then demonstrated, zipping across the room in a golden flash, leaving a faint scorch mark on the wall before reappearing beside Adam, a picture of effortless control.
"See? Yelena gets it. Efficiency. Elegance. And minimal accidental property damage," Adam said, winking at Yelena. "Alright, let's try this again. Fitz, focus on creating a small, stable Room. Imagine it like a bubble. A very precise, very controlled bubble. Think of it as a mathematical equation you're solving with your mind, but the variables are space and time. Simmons, think less 'super-growth ray' and more 'targeted cellular repair.' You're a surgeon, not a gardener on steroids. Focus on the specific cells, the specific injury. Precision, not proliferation."
They spent days, then weeks, in intensive training. Adam, using his Adaptive Body, would demonstrate perfect control over various energies and physical feats, inspiring them. He'd show Fitz how to subtly manipulate air currents within a confined space, how to create a perfect vacuum, how to bend light. He'd show Simmons how to isolate specific cellular structures, how to accelerate healing in a precise area without affecting surrounding tissue. He was their living textbook, their impossible mentor, constantly pushing them, constantly challenging their scientific understanding of what was possible, all while subtly absorbing their new powers to better understand them himself.
Fitz, with his brilliant mind, slowly began to grasp the complex spatial mathematics of the Room-Room Fruit. He started with simple tasks: moving objects within a Room, creating small, stable pockets of altered reality. He'd spend hours muttering to himself, drawing complex diagrams in the air with his glowing hand, before finally, with a triumphant cry, he'd perfectly levitate a wrench across the room, then gently place it back down. His control was growing, his anxiety slowly being replaced by intellectual triumph, the thrill of bending reality to his will.
Simmons, with her compassionate heart and meticulous scientific approach, focused on the ethical applications of the Heal-Heal Fruit. She practiced on small injuries, then on more complex tissue damage (using synthetic samples, much to Adam's relief, as he didn't fancy being a human pin cushion). She learned to control the flow of energy, to target specific cells, to heal without over-regenerating. She even discovered she could subtly enhance existing biological processes, making her a formidable bio-engineer, capable of accelerating recovery or boosting natural defenses with a touch.
Yelena, already a master of her Light-Light Fruit, became their sparring partner, their speed demon. She'd zip around them, forcing Fitz to react with spatial distortions, making Simmons practice rapid, targeted healing on simulated injuries. Her sarcastic commentary was a constant, but strangely motivating, backdrop, pushing them to their limits, ensuring they didn't get too comfortable.
"Come on, Fitz! If you can't even catch me when I'm standing still, how are you going to contain a rampaging alien? He's not going to wait for you to finish your calculations! And he's probably not going to appreciate being put in a bubble!" she'd taunt, then vanish in a flash of light, forcing Fitz to instinctively react with a spatial trap.
"Simmons! My fake arm is still broken! Are you even trying?! This dummy is going to sue you for medical malpractice! And I'm pretty sure he's developing a rash!" she'd complain, after Simmons had healed a dummy's limb with a slight tremor, pushing her to greater precision.
Despite the teasing, the bond between them solidified. They were a team, learning to trust each other's instincts, to anticipate each other's moves, to rely on each other's unique strengths. Adam watched them, a profound sense of satisfaction settling over him. He had found his people. His Adapt-Alliance. And they were getting stronger, faster, more capable with every passing day. The universe didn't know what was coming for it, but the Adapt-Alliance was getting ready. And they were going to do it with style. And a lot of sarcasm.
Click here to dive deeper: [patreon.com/TheFinex5] for more than 20 webnovels