Just a shorter chapter so you don't end up with nothing ;)
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I finally had what I needed.
The school gave me access to things I never had before, proper labs, fast computers, and a library that actually mattered. Not just a room full of dusty books, but real material. Research. Manuals. Data that went deep enough to be useful.
So I used it.
I started with physics. Not just formulas about speed, but how energy moves, how space reacts under stress, how motion behaves when you push past normal limits.
Then chemistry, how materials hold together, how they fail, how to make something strong without making it fragile.
Engineering came right after that. Motors, structures, load limits, power systems.
I even studied basic economics and company structures. I need money, and I'm not going to turn to Vought or my parents for any of it.
The computers made a huge difference. With real hardware and decent internet, I went far beyond the basics of programming. I learned how systems talked to each other, how to simulate environments, how to build control software that wouldn't break the moment something went wrong.
I wrote programs, tested them, threw most of them away, and rebuilt them better.
At some point, I realized I wasn't just studying anymore. I understood this stuff.
Languages came naturally after that. Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Russian. When you can read entire books in seconds, learning stops being hard and starts being automatic.
All of it was leading somewhere.
I needed a better way to train my powers. Running around outside wasn't enough anymore. I needed control. Measurements. A safe way to push myself without destroying half the city by accident.
That's when the idea hit me.
I was going to build my own cosmic treadmill.
A place where I could run at extreme speeds without tearing everything apart. Something that could track how fast I was going, how much strain my body was under, how much energy I was producing.
If it worked, it wouldn't just help me train, it could help me get faster.
It was risky. Complicated. Definitely not something a normal kid should even try.
But it was possible.
And there was one more thing I needed to learn too. Phasing through solid objects.
I had tried once before. Just my hand.
I got the frequency wrong by a tiny amount, and my index finger broke from the inside. No blood. Just pain and shock. It healed in about an hour, but that was more than enough to teach me a lesson.
Healing fast doesn't make mistakes harmless. So I slowed down.
I studied vibration patterns, molecular spacing, resonance. I ran simulations. I learned from the data.
Speed wasn't just about going faster. It was about control.