Philadelphia, 01:02 PM.

February 19th​, 2010.

By the time Tracy returned, they had long since finished talking about the monkey business, and Aiden was now sitting bored on the bed, shirt off and covered in wires, apparently recording an entire host of ‘biometric data.’

“Finished with your secret boy's club?” Tracy said pouting, as she handed him one freshly made vanilla latte. “or are you going to kick me out again?”

“Tracy,” Aiden said blissfully, as he took a sip. “I couldn’t keep a secret from you, not when we're getting married.”

Emil snorted from his place in front of the computer.

“You do not have my blessing,” Emil said dryly.

“I’m your assistant, not your daughter,” Tracy said, amused, before turning back to him. “Coffee lover, huh?”

“I usually just call it a friend with benefits,” Aiden said quickly, before taking another sip. “But I’ll be your coffee lover.”

Emil scoffed from his place at the computer.

“Wow.” Tracy snickered, “I guess I walked into that one.”

Aiden just smirked at her.

“What was this about an artificial gravity room?” Tracy asked curiously before she hopped up onto the bed beside him.

“Aiden insists that his body will react in a very positive manner while exercising under the effects of increased gravity, although he still refuses to explain how he knows such a thing.” Emil said distractedly, “Tracy, didn’t you work with Daniel Brown on some project involving gravity several years ago?”

Emil had mentioned that she had helped create something like that in the past.

“It was a gravity inhibitor,” Tracy said thoughtfully, “We never ended up doing anything with it either, it was pretty useless, all it did was make things float, plenty of those already in the market.”

Aiden raised his eyebrows at the impressive accomplishment, that would have changed the world irreversibly back where he had come from, she would have been hailed as one of the smartest scientists of note.

Apparently here such an achievement could be considered ‘useless,’ how ludicrous.

“That’s impressive,” Aiden said honestly, “Any way you could repurpose it to increase gravity on something? How big was the device?”

Tracy smiled at the praise before swinging her legs for a moment.

“Not exactly a simple task, but it wouldn’t be impossible,” Tracy said, amused, “We ended up building it into a collar, so you could kind of float around with it on, but there wasn’t a system to maneuver in the air though.”

A collar? Like the one that went around your neck? That small? Aiden had been picturing a massive cube with pipes coming out of it in every direction.

“How long would it take to redesign it?” Aiden said easily, he would usually have an offer in mind first, but he had no idea what something like this was worth.

“Well,” Tracy said slowly, “Most of the parts are already there, a stronger power source would be needed depending on how much ‘resistance’ you want, a month?”

A month?! Screw trying ever to get back to his old world; this place was way better. Tracy was talking about it like it was an old pair of shoes she had forgotten about, how much would be considered a generous offer?

“How long did it take you to make it originally?” Aiden asked curiously, tone light.

“Three months, but it was part of a larger project, and we had like twelve people in total,” Tracy said happily. “It was considered one of the failures for what we wanted, and we ended up with something much better.”

That was just ridiculous and incredibly wasteful.

“How much do you want for it, as is?” Aiden asked easily.

Tracy tilted her head in thought.

“As is, it's pretty much worthless honestly.” Tracy admitted sheepishly, “Ten-thousand?”

Aiden leaned back on his hands, in thought, ten-thousand dollars was something he could easily come up with, relatively quickly. Resell the apartment he had been given at just below current market value for a quick turn over, buy the device, put a deposit on a smaller cheaper apartment somewhere else, and then work on building some money back up afterward.

“I’ll buy it for eight-thousand,” Aiden said evenly, “How much do you want to redesign it?”

Tracy bit her lip for a moment, but looked excited at the amount, Aiden had no idea how these scientists weren’t all billionaires already, some people had no business sense whatsoever.

“Ten-thousand for the redesign?” Tracy smiled brightly at him, and he knew she was trying to fleece him. “Eighteen-thousand total?”

“Fifteen total,” Aiden immediately counteroffered, “I’ll reveal my deep dark tail secret, whose very existence threatens the fabric of all alternate worlds.”

Emil scoffed again from the computer, having remained silent through the sudden negotiations.

“Is it a secret worth three-thousand dollars, Professor?” Tracy asked nervously.

“Probably,” Emil said plainly, “It has nothing to do with alternate worlds, however.”

“Et Tu, Emil?” Aiden laughed.

Emil glanced over his shoulder, amused.

“Your narcissism is showing again, Caesar,” Emil said wryly.

Aiden grinned at the man before turning back to give Tracy a winning smile.

“Fifteen-thousand, and the secret.” Tracy blurted, “But it better be good!”

“I’ll need a week or so to come up with the money,” Aiden said smoothly, “I’ll tell you the secret then.”

Tracy looked incredibly disappointed to have to wait.

“This secret is really, really mysterious too,” Aiden asked, amused. “Such a shame.”

“Shut up.” Tracy huffed, “It will take about a month on my end, I think? Possibly a bit more, depending on what projects come up at work, I think I have most of the things I need already lying around.”

Aiden couldn’t be happier, development of something of this magnitude would have taken years back in the other world, or decades, if they even knew where to start, a month was nothing, he’d waited longer for delayed shipments.

“I’d like to be kept in the loop,” Aiden said easily, “Fortnightly updates? We can do it via phone.”

“That’s fine,” Tracy agreed readily.

“With that, my true plan has been achieved,” Aiden said seriously.

“What was your true plan?” Tracy asked, intrigued.

“Getting your phone number.” Aiden grinned at her.

Tracy’s face flushed slightly.

“You’re definitely older then you look,” Tracy said, amused, “I’ll have to be on my guard around you.”

“Probably,” Aiden admitted, “These things always come in threes.”

Tracy covered her mouth with her hand to hide her smile.

“Oh lord,” Emil said, exasperated, “You can flirt elsewhere, we are done here.”

Aiden pushed himself off the bed and starting pulling the wires off happy to be free of the annoying things finally. He retrieved his clothes from the other end of the bed and pulled his shirt back on with a moment's effort.

“Well, that was fun, but I have places to be and fifteen-thousand dollars to locate.” Aiden said calmly at the threshold, “When is our next appointment?”

“Twentieth of next month is when I’ll be back in Philadelphia,” Emil said evenly, “Anytime after ten, I’ll make myself available.”

“Twentieth, at ten,” Aiden recited easily, “See you then, Emil. Tracy, please contact me when you have an update.”

“I will,” Tracy said happily, and Aiden could practically see the dollar signs in her eyes.

Aiden stepped out of the room and made his way back to the front of the building. He followed the same path he had taken to get inside. He was left unobstructed by any of the guards that lined the first floor of the building before he stepped outside.

Now he was finally on his own, no driver, no doctors, no police, and no League members. The first thing he needed to do was go and find his apartment, which was supposed to be right in central. Aiden had already spent several hours doing his best to memorize the city, and he could already see where he needed to go.

He took his time, taking in all the buildings, shops, and people that populated the city. Despite the accents everyone had, it didn’t seem much different from what he was used to, and he made a note of several interesting looking restaurants that caught his eye.

Aiden had always been fascinated by the skylines of built-up cities, its what had driven him to create SUDA in the first place, but what you dream of at night and the reality of the world are two very different things.

The company had ended up being nothing but a constant stream of sorting through suppliers, clients, and employees and the mistakes and grievances of all of them. Every time he had stepped back and delegated some of the work, someone had always managed to find a way to fuck it all up within record time, which had just led him to take on more and more responsibility.

Which left him with a fraction of the time he’d once had, and most of his hobbies had died along with his sleep schedule. This was almost like a vacation in a way, well, a vacation where he’d been drugged, mugged and stranded in a place with nothing but a shitty tail to keep him company.

Aiden spotted the apartment building, which looked exactly like the picture from the internet, and he turned off the pavement and into the building. He took the elevator to the eighth floor and found his apartment, door number three.

“Huh.” Aiden scanned the room, taking a moment to close the door behind him.

Fully furnished already, which was something of a surprise, that would either be a boon or an annoyance that he would have to get rid of, depending on the buyers. Kitchen by the entrance, living room with glass windows that lined the building, giving a decent view of the surrounding streets. The bathroom was kind of small, but it was a nice place overall.

The next step would be to evaluate what exactly he had here.

A quick search online netted him a rough estimate, based on similarly located, equally sized apartments. He was looking at something in the range of two-hundred-fifty to three-hundred. Fucking Batman tossing around things like this on a whim. Then again, he had agreed to let them study the Attack Ball in exchange so, he was probably still getting the worse end of the deal there. Batman might turn around and use what he learned as a base to make some frontrunner technology, another drop in the ocean that was Bruce Wayne's fortune.

Aiden could readily admit he was jealous of the man's success.

Selling would be quick at anything below two-fifty, people would be looking at this area closely for anything under market value. Too low and they would want to drag it out until they ‘found the problem’ with it. There was nothing that he could see, but that's the impression it would give if it were too cheap.

Aiden nodded to himself, he would go find the listed real estate and put it up tomorrow, right now he had something he had wanted to try since he’d dragged himself out of the lake. Aiden moved over and pulled all of the curtains shut, one after another, leaving the room in relative darkness.

Aiden was pretty sure that Batman had bugged the place because the man would need some kind of leverage to make sure Aiden wouldn’t release the man's identity, not that he had any intention of doing so. Still, he wasn’t going to waste any more time trying to hide it either way.

“Hey, Batman,” Aiden said smoothly as he sat down in the middle of the living room floor. “Thanks for the apartment, I’m totally going to sell it though, I’ll pay you back when I’m rich again, maybe.”

Aiden closed his eyes and started moving the energy around in his body until it pooled heavily at his legs.

“I might end up bringing someone back here too,” Aiden murmured, starting to build the pressure of his Ki below him slowly. “If I find any sex tapes starring me online, I’m going to have to kick your ass, fair warning.”

Easier said than done; it was Batman after all.

Aiden ramped the energy output up until he actually felt his body weight seemingly lessen by a significant degree, and an unseen wind ruffled his clothes around and sent the curtains swaying.

Several minutes of concentration, dogged refinement, and singleminded focus all led to the moment that Aiden slowly, shakily, lifted off the floor to float several inches in the air.

“Did Diana tell you that I thought she was a stripper? In my defense, I had no idea people were running around in costumes like that at the time.” Aiden strained out, trying to hold the energy steady. “She tried to beat me up too, in case she skipped over that part.”

The energy coursing through him was an experience.

It simultaneously filled and excited every cell in his body, bringing a host of sensations with it. It was a tumultuous energy that brought with it a feeling of power and potential. It felt bright, alive, and ready to take action. There was no way he could have missed it after spending two and a half decades without it.

It was simply too significant a change.

It was the greatest thing he had ever felt, and he knew it was barely the beginning; he would grow in power, slowly, inexorably, and this energy, his Ki, would grow with him.

“What a rush.” Aiden breathed happily.

He had found something of a balance with the energy, as it kept him afloat. The effort required to hold it in place was decreasing minutely as he grew accustomed to it; he could also feel the energy available to him slowly lessening as he held himself afloat. It would take a while, but he’d never been afraid of hard work.

“I know what you’re thinking, Batman.” Aiden said distractedly, “Why is he so happy with sitting six inches off the ground? Why couldn’t he just save himself the effort and grab a chair?”

Aiden slowly tried to spin himself around in the air and found it took a different expression of Ki to accomplish, but he slowly managed it over the course of a long minute.

“In the land of no-chairs, I’ll be king,” Aiden managed to force out, as his energy slowly emptied. “and, you’ll, have, sore, legs. Ugh.”

Aiden dropped back to the floor as he hit empty, barely feeling the contact with the wooden floor. He could feel the remnants of his Ki pulling themselves back into existence, but it wouldn’t be anytime soon.

“I wonder if I can speed it up somehow?” Aiden wondered aloud.

Spirit bomb allowed people to draw Ki towards them from other people all around the world, could he just try and draw some from his environment somehow? Aiden crossed his legs and groped at the air around him with his mind for several minutes, but it wasn’t working.

Aiden switched to pushing the tiny amount of Ki he had left in between his cupped hands, and he could see a small spark of light flicker between them. Aiden tried to magnetize it somehow, try and draw more Ki towards the energy, like some kind of untrained, failed attempt at a budget spirit bomb.

The spark just flickered weakly.

“No luck, huh?” Aiden said thoughtfully.

How did they power up in the show? There were ways of multiplying Ki, both through transformations and other things like Kaioken. How do you multiply a unit of Ki? Split it? Inflate it somehow?

“How do you multiply something tangible?” Aiden murmured, as he focused on the feeling of the small flicker of Ki as it was reabsorbed into his hand. “Excite the energy in some strange way?”

His hand tingled with the small amount of Ki, and he tried to shake the energy, get it to move without drifting, vibrate it until it buzzed and cracked against his skin. There was some reaction going on there, as he forced the energy to move on the spot.

After almost half an hour of trying his best to garner some reaction, the small crackling speck of Ki did something strange, and his eyes snapped open to stare down at his hand. He let go of the vibration in his surprise, but the two identical specks remained before they once again became one slightly larger speck and settled.

“Interesting,” Aiden said intently.

The longer he sat with his eyes closed, focused on the feeling of his Ki, the more he could seemingly feel. After almost another hour of tunneling his focus on it, to the exclusion of everything around him, he had finally reached the point where he could feel the energy slowing reappearing. It was at a level that to the naked eye, had to of been the equivalent of microscopic.

The process that was generating it illuded him entirely, much smaller than even the level he’d forced himself to, and far beyond his current understanding.

“I will learn,” Aiden murmured, “Eventually.”

An hour of meditation a day was being slotted into the first spot of his in-design training plan. He wanted to be able to understand how the energy was being formed and try to replicate that in some way.

What he had done earlier made no sense, he had split the remainder of his Ki into two parts somehow, and after a moment it had been recombined. It looked like he would be relying on his natural regeneration until he could figure something out.

“I’m hungry,” Aiden noted idly.

Did food contribute to Ki regeneration speed? More food would mean more energy and nutrients for his body, and his body was what generated the Ki. Eating after using all of his Ki was something he could test, time how long it took to recover with or without eating. It would take two days at most, a shame he hadn’t thought of it before.

Something for tomorrow then.

“Right, no more of this fancy pants stuff.” Aiden said easily, “Batman, I’m going to need you to spot me; it’s time to get swole.”

Aiden knelt down into the push-up position before lifting his knees off the wooden floor, his arms spread at shoulder width, he took a deep breath and then let himself drop slowly, trying to keep his form clean, before pushing himself back up.

It was as absurdly easy as it had been the last thousand times he had done it over the previous month, his own weight not enough to provoke much of a resistance against his increased strength.

“Where art thou, gains?” Aiden said sullenly, “Why have you forsaken me?”