Tuesday and Wednesday passed faster than expected. So fast that it was already Thursday.
After listening to Hank's advice, Ethan decided to go to the library to read the books he recommended, the books that talked about mutants, their physiognomy and their powers.
They had been very helpful, Ethan could say it.
Some, or rather most, were theses and studies based on superstitions and fallacies used to demonize mutants and increase prejudice against them, this mixed with some poorly done studies and many statements that proved wrong over time.
Ethan discarded these, which in his view were completely useless, and focused on those that really presented facts and studies about mutants and their abilities, even if they also had an anti-mutant propaganda. Ethan was not a real mutant, so for him this was dispensable.
There was a little bit of everything in those books. From analysis on the physiognomy of mutants whose mutations caused physical changes to theories about the functioning of various skills.
What also helped was the fact that now Ethan could read and process information faster. Probably another of his new capabilities.
Now, instead of having to read several times to memorize a single piece of information, he understood and processed information much faster. Not to the point of reading and memorizing a 300-page book in 5 minutes, but compared to before, it was a gigantic improvement.
All the information was being useful, and now all Ethan needed was to start putting it into practice. Practice his powers in a controlled environment and without any kind of risk to himself. That would be perfect.
Ethan also noticed that his way of thinking kept changing over time. In addition to paying more attention to things now, he has also become more analytical, practical and his mood has become much more... dry, so to speak.
These were also more changes due to its fusion rate being increasing. Speaking of fusion rate...
6.02%
It kept increasing and Ethan hadn't found out so much yet. Although this no longer bothered him so much, because until now he had not noticed anything harmful being directed at him, a part of his mind kept screaming like a noisy bitch and saying that he should find out as soon as possible what was happening, so he would find out sooner or later.
Anyway, Ethan was in the library at this time, not to study, but to research about some important things.
With his fusion rate increasing non-stop at the speed it was, Ethan's physical and mental abilities were also increasing exponentially to the same extent, and together with them, his memory had also become much better.
And with this improved memory, Ethan began to remember things he had previously ignored. Conversations that his friends, mostly fans of marvel and other superhero media, had and that Ethan ignored because he was a big fan of superheroes in general.
As I said before, Ethan was never very interested in superheroes and as such, he was never interested in Marvel. And despite having seen the movies at the insistence of his friends, he had already forgotten practically all of those movies. But now with his new memory, he was remembering some names and key figures of that universe.
Now, using the school computers, he would do a quick research on some people. Nothing very important or deep, he just wanted to have a sense of the kind of figure he might have to deal with in the future. Besides, he didn't care much.
Luckily for you, the year they were in was 2019 and not several decades in the past. That is, google and wikipedia to help in the search.
The first survey was about the X-men, more out of curiosity than anything else. He didn't remember hearing his friends talking about the mutant team, so he would use the information from this world to find out more about them.
The information was exactly what Ethan expected about a secret team of mutants: vague and inaccurate.
The articles he found described the X-men as a team of mutants who operated around the United States rescuing mutants and fighting prejudice while trying to spread the ideal of peace between mutants and humans.
Another thing that caught Ethan's attention was that the files said that the identities of the X-men members were unknown. That is, no one knew their real names and much less that they were sheltered in an educational institute run by a bald man in a wheelchair.
This would cause problems later, Ethan thought. Based on everything he knew about spy movies, whenever a secret base was discovered, he usually ended up in a gigantic shit.
Ethan decided to ignore this fact for now and went on to the next survey.
Still about mutants, he decided to research about Charles Francis Xavier. Professor Xavier.
Still out of curiosity, Ethan wanted to see if he could find any information about the man, because he thought it was kind of impossible for the man to have opened a school for "gifted youngsters " without having any information about him online.
And wasn't he correct?
The information he found was even better than he expected. For the rest of the world, Charles Xavier was a renowned and respected teacher for his studies involving mutations, having even written a book about mutants based on the encounters he had with several mutants when he traveled the world at a young age.
Ethan made a mental note to find this book.
He has also had many participations in other areas, even ventured into politics, and then decided to move away and create his school for gifted young people.
But one piece of information that caught Ethan's attention was that Xavier lost the movement in his legs after a trip to Antarctica that he made with his best friend at the time. He never revealed what happened on this trip and when he tried to research about this best friend, Ethan found nothing.
His new instincts said that there was something wrong and that he should pay attention to it. But he just ignored these details for now and went on to the next search.
Then he researched the Avengers, "The Earth's Mightiest Heroes " as they were called. Despite already knowing the basics about each of them, Ethan still needed to confirm some things.
The articles and news he found, in addition to the usual glaze that heroes receive, also talked a little about the current formation of the Avengers, which was: Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Hulk, Ant Man, Wasp, Thor and Black Widow. A little different from what he remembered, but you could relieve it.
He also took advantage and researched some of their heroic deeds, and found some battles and adventures they had, the most notable being the time they faced someone who manipulated gravity.
Ethan felt like he had already seen that somewhere...
Finally, Ethan decided to end his research by researching Reed Richards.
The most intelligent man in the universe, a title that Ethan doubted a lot of its veracity, and also one of Marvel's greatest inventors. This was also more out of curiosity, because his friends liked to talk about that man.
He expected to find files about a brilliant researcher, an incomparable scientist, a man with a great ego. Instead, he found articles about a team of superheroes.
The Fantastic Four, that's what they were called. Apparently, after a space trip that went wrong, Reed Richards and his companions ended up gaining powers.
Johnny Storm could turn his body into flames and fly.
Ben Grimm had his body turned into rock and gained superhuman strength and resistance.
Susan Richards Storm could become invisible and create psychic force fields.
And Reed Richards Storm could stretch his body the way he wanted.
Ethan ended up researching a little more about them, but because they were a relatively new team, there wasn't much to talk about them, so Ethan didn't get any useful information.
Ethan also thought about researching about S.H.I.E.L.D and Hydra, but then remembered that both were super secret organizations, so he decided not to waste his time and researched about something else.
Ethan also noticed that he always entered articles about superheroes, there was a link that appeared in the surveys. Curious, Ethan clicked on this link to see where it would end up.
The link took him to a site called "Superhumam wiki". It was basically a wikipedia version of superheroes.
In this wiki, people shared information not about superheroes, but mainly about superhuman skills. Super powers.
They theorized about how certain powers worked, measured the level of strength of several heroes and villains based on things they did, tried to define which hero was stronger than the other based on deeds A and B, in addition to having several pages dedicated to explanations about the powers of several heroes.
Basically, it was like the deathbattle wiki, but with more nerds and noisy children because now they were talking about real heroes and not fictional characters.
After deciding that he had already had his daily dose of internet, Ethan decided to end his research and leave the library.
There were many figures in that world that he should be careful with, especially S.H.I.E.L.D and Hydra. But Ethan wouldn't worry about them now, not while he was inside the institute.
There, he would be protected and safe, and would still have time to train and improve his powers to the fullest, in addition to being able to rest and enjoy his adolescence.
After all, he's just a teenager. All he wants for himself are quiet days and a good life.
But he would have to suffer a lot before that...