Staring at the Hydra trooper who had been scared witless, Shiratori Riku ignored him and glanced at the communicator by the man's boot.
He stooped, lifted it to his ear, and called out.
"Hello, can you hear me, buddy?"
Silence met his question, no response at all.
Riku was not surprised. He was only doing it for fun.
He immediately crafted a game called Wiretap Storm.
With it, he could listen to any communication he wished.
The moment it spun up, he caught a thread of voices.
"Initiate self-destruct. We cannot allow the test subjects inside to escape."
"But sir, we still have people in there!"
"Soldier, follow orders. Start it now."
Riku could not help but smile and shake his head.
Typical Hydra. No one else is this deranged.
He sighed, suddenly finding these people boring.
In the next second he warped through space, appearing on the surface hundreds of meters above the base.
Through x-ray vision, he swept the underground complex clean in a glance.
He stretched out a hand toward the earth and closed his fist.
Terrifying telekinesis crashed down. The entire Hydra base crumpled like clay.
With that done, Riku turned and flew toward New York.
Hide it? Keep a low profile? Sorry, no need at all.
After Hydra's enthusiastic stress test, his stance was simple: he did not care for beef, and he would do whatever he pleased.
Besides, the ordinary powers on Earth needed to notice him.
He broke the sound barrier, left a white ring in his wake, and vanished into the sky.
Before long, a shadow swept across the clouds above New York.
Riku landed in an abandoned factory in Queens, cold wind tugging at his thin straitjacket.
Wiretap Storm expanded until it blanketed the city with ease.
A heartbeat later, the information of New York City poured into his ear.
Only what he wanted came through.
He had no interest in eavesdropping on bedroom whispers. If he wanted excitement, he preferred hands-on practice.
He soon found the target he sought.
An instant later, he appeared in a hidden basement belonging to a certain mob boss.
He eyed several large crates filled with cash and took the boss's stash in one sweep.
It was a lowbrow move, and he would only do it this once. His palms were itching to pocket something personally.
Otherwise he could simply create an automatic money-harvesting game and be done with it.
He left without a ripple, quiet as the dawn.
At six in the morning, in a luxury condo in Midtown Manhattan, Riku lounged in the jacuzzi of his new home. A fresh laptop hovered in front of him.
His Divine Talent mind was devouring the world's information at a staggering pace.
"Iron Man has just gone public with his identity... Captain America is still on ice... our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is already active..."
From the known facts, this was not the movie universe, but a different Marvel world.
For now, nothing on Earth could trouble him.
Relieved, Riku tapped at the keyboard. He laundered his mysterious funds and arranged a green card for himself.
He had come here as a tourist. If he planned to stay, the paperwork mattered.
When he finished, he stretched, used telekinesis to wash and dry himself, then walked to the window.
The sun was rising. He accepted a cup of red tea brewed midair, took a sip, and saluted the city.
"Hello, New York."
"May we get along well from here on."
He drained the cup and fell onto the bed to sleep.
Whoops, sleeping red tea.
Whatever comes next can wait. First priority was a good nap to greet a new world on waking.
Before long he stirred and sat up with a satisfied stretch.
God's Ten-Billion Power made adjusting his stats effortless.
As a posthuman, he no longer needed sleep or food.
Yet with those same controls, he could become an ordinary man any time and enjoy ordinary life.
He cooked breakfast with telekinesis while probing for information across the planet.
Wiretap Storm, initiate.
The game field opened and swept across the globe.
He left places of mystic power untouched.
Kamar-Taj, Kunlun, the resting place of the Darkhold, and the like could wait.
There was no need to brush against the occult too soon.
His focus was on organizations in the surface world.
He quickly snagged an encrypted S.H.I.E.L.D. exchange.
"A Hydra base has been destroyed. Abnormal energy readings detected."
"No witnesses. All surveillance is down."
"Director Fury requests continued investigation, but leads are scarce."
Riku chuckled. S.H.I.E.L.D. was looking for him, clueless all the same.
Soon after, he intercepted Hydra's encrypted traffic.
"Winter Soldier on standby."
"The target may possess unimaginable power. Any plan against the target must be considered with extreme caution."
Riku nodded. In professionalism and paranoia, Hydra always stayed a step ahead of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Still, S.H.I.E.L.D. had its strengths.
That one-eyed spymaster had the brains to burrow into a serpent-riddled agency and become its director. Terrifying indeed.
With the ribbing done, Riku began studying the technologies in this world.
Divine Talent demanded constant learning and development to keep growing stronger.
Yesterday he had sampled God's Ten-Billion Power. Today he would test Divine Talent.
With Wiretap Storm, he quickly compiled the cutting edge of Earth.
Tony Stark's arc reactor tech.
Wakanda's suite of vibranium-centered technologies.
Hank Pym's Pym Particles and the super-soldier serum legacy of Dr. Erskine.
There were also minor lines of research, from the Red Room enhancement drugs to Osborn's enhancement tech to the still-developing Extremis virus.
Each had flaws or gaps. Riku skipped them for now.
They were not yet worthy fuel for the advance of Divine Talent.