I paid the tax immediately after the IRS guys left my home. I tried to go to my room with Maria, but my mother stopped me.
"Felix Cole Vale. You better explain," my mother said, looking dead serious at me.
"About that, I think I'll explain it some other time," I said, trying to slip past them.
"RIGHT NOW! EXPLAIN RIGHT NOW!" my mother shouted, her tone making it clear she didn't want any nonsense.
"Okay," I said, sitting down in the living room with them.
"Remember when I developed my AI? I also created a company called Oseong Corporation. For the first six months, I wasn't making any money, but then something changed," I said, deciding to tell them almost everything. They kept quiet as they listened to my explanation.
"I started making money after that. Each month, I was making about 100 , but I never used it. I even forgot about it because I became too focused on the phone."
"We made $100,000 a month, and you didn't even tell us?" my mother said in shock, staring at me. I understood why, there was debt that needed to be cleared.
"No. I made $100 million a month."
"""WHAT!"""
Everyone reacted in shock as my grandmother started to have a heart attack, and we had to calm her down.
Everyone started shouting at me after they found out how much money I was making each month. My mother demanded a share, and so did my grandmother. Maria kept quiet and didn't say anything, but my mother said I should give her money too.
I gave my mother $20 million, my grandmother $5 million, and Maria $10,000. That was a lot of money for a 15-year-old in 1997, enough to buy a house.
After that, we went to my room to cuddle—nothing more. Maria spent the night at my place.
The following day, Maria left for her house, and I decided to check something.
I looked into what happened in 1962, and it was surprising. Apparently, Darwin didn't die the way it was shown in the movie, even though events still played out the same. When Sebastian Shaw told Darwin to "Adapt to this," he triggered an explosion that destroyed everything around him, and the footage cut out.
I thought, 'That didn't go the way it was supposed to.'
I realized Darwin can adapt to almost anything, except the Hulk. Whenever he faces the Hulk, his body teleports away, like it can't adapt to him at all. He can handle gamma radiation, but not the Hulk himself.
I decided to check his status. I couldn't remember his name, but SPACE knew exactly who I meant.
FULL NAME: Armando Muñoz
RACE: Afro-Latino
SPECIES: Mutant
STATUS: Alive
I was instantly surprised when I saw that, but I returned to normal quickly because it was expected for him to survive that attack.
I looked into things and found that Latveria doesn't have a king yet. David Banner escaped the mental hospital he was put in. Bruce Krenzler finished college and was recruited by the military to develop soldiers who can't die.
I also found out about Dr. Joseph Reinstein, which surprised me. He destroyed anything related to the Super Soldier Serum, and Steve Rogers was given the only version. There was an earlier version of the serum that wasn't perfected, but it was perfected when given to Steve.
SPACE tried to find research on the serum, but it appears it wasn't recorded anywhere, except in the memory of the person who created it. SPACE found a picture of the serum and decided to break down the elements used in that bottle.
After SPACE finished decomposing it, she gave me a list of materials I might need to recreate the serum. Some couldn't be found in the mall, so I had to hit the black market.
I was seen as prey, but I eventually got my materials, even though I got scammed. I lost my phone in the market, but I was lucky I didn't get beaten up.
I showed the materials to SPACE, and she told me I had the wrong one. She said most people make mistakes with certain materials, which wasn't surprising. What was surprising was that I had the same material, but with different components.
It's like seawater and tap water. They're the same, but also not.
I had to return to the underground, but I decided to buy everything they had on them, including their clothes. They refused, but I bought the materials anyway, using the car. They even sold me guns along with them.
It cost me $4 million, which was a lie, but I didn't want to argue. I just paid and left. I took the stuff piece by piece and eventually got everything back to my house.
It's weird being rich but still living with my mom.
I was surprised when SPACE pointed out there was promethium in the things I bought, and some vibranium too. There was even a Heart-shaped Herb in the collection, which I got at a lower price.
Seeing Vibranium and the Heart-shaped Herb together made me realize: Namor definitely has access to both. That means there's probably a place near Namor's location where Vibranium fell, and it probably allowed a few Heart-shaped Herbs to grow there.
Either way, it's good for me that I have them.
"SPACE, forget about Project Peak. We need to start Project Cosmic."
«Sir, do you want me to abort Project Peak?»
"No. Don't abort it. Just create one Super Soldier Serum, and we can start Project Cosmic once it's done."
«Okay. Just follow the instructions I laid out.»
After that, I started developing the serum. Project Peak is the creation of the Super Soldier Serum, and Project Cosmic is the creation of the Superior Mutagen Formula.
I developed the Super Soldier Serum in less than an hour. It was easy because I was following SPACE's instructions. God damn, I'm a genius.
«Sir, I'm the genius. Not you.»
Anyway, I completed the serum and stored it somewhere safe, but still inside the house where SPACE could monitor it. Next, I decided to develop the Superior Mutagen Formula. I'll call it SMF for short.
I wanted to mix the properties of the Super Soldier Serum, Promethium, and the Heart-shaped Herb, but first, I had to make Promethium less dangerous.