Felix didn't know where he was going. Home? Which home? Daxter Labs? Or his place in Harlem?
He didn't think too deeply. He just got on the train and started going. Half-heartedly, he made the decision to go to Harlem. Why not? It's not like Daxter Lab had a comfy bed.
The train, the sidewalk…he just wanted to go home, so he decided to take a shortcut. He entered an alleyway.
Felix trudged through the alleyway, his footsteps echoing in the desolate space. The weight of grief hung heavy on his shoulders, amplifying the bleakness around him. Lost in his thoughts, he hardly noticed the figure emerging from the shadows until it was too late.
"Hey, hand over your wallet!"
The demand sliced through the air, cutting into Felix's despondent reverie.
'Huh…? A robber?'
Without lifting his gaze, Felix sighed, "I'm really not in the mood."
The glint of the gun caught his eye as the robber's voice grew sharper, "I said, hand it over!"
'Are you kidding me? Today? Of all days?'
Today. One day after Reed's death. Just one day.
Couldn't he get a break?
The world seemed to slow down as frustration mingled with an unexpected surge of adrenaline. In a moment of instinct, Felix's hand shot out, knocking the gun away. His heart barely reacted as he acted purely on reflex.
A gasp escaped the assailant as Felix's fist connected with surprising force, sending the robber reeling backward. The impact against the wall reverberated through the alley, leaving Felix stunned by the sudden display of strength.
It was strange. It was like everything felt just…right.
"W-what the…I didn't…" He wanted to fight but this was not that. This wasn't a scuffle. Blood spewed from the robber's nose. All of a sudden, it looked like a one-sided beat-down.
'How did one punch do that much damage!?'
Panic gnawed at him, a wild mix of fear and astonishment. His hands trembled as he took a step back, watching the figure slump against the wall. There was a lot of blood leaking from his nostrils.
Felix's mind raced. The alleyway seemed quieter now, the stillness broken only by the shallow breaths of the subdued figure.
Felix…
'Run.'
He ran away. The echoes of his own pulse drowned out the sounds of the city, leaving him grappling with the unexpected strength that had risen from the depths of his despair. He was left with this newfound fear in his body.
'T-this isn't…how…?' He shook his head, fast-walking. 'I healed fast, I-I'm seeing so well, and the world feels so slow…'
He kept fast-walking, yet he didn't feel tired. It took ten minutes to reach his apartment and still, he was unfazed.
'Well, technically it's not an apartment. It's a tenement or a low-rise apartment building. Wait, why am I even thinking about that?'
His mind was going crazy, several thoughts exploding like fireworks. His stomach grumbled as he ran up the stairs, which felt fleeting. Two steps at a time, three steps, four steps—
'How the hell—?
He literally leapt from one fleet of stairs to the next. Ten whole steps done in one bounce. Was that even humanly possible? If so, was it supposed to be—
'This easy!?' He stopped to look down, then to the final set of stairs to the second floor. 'Why does it feel I could just…nevermind!'
His stomach began to churn. He was really fucking hungry.
As Felix fumbled with his keys, attempting to unlock the door to his apartment, a voice cut through the quiet hallway. "Felix, is everything okay?" He turned to find Rio Morales, a concerned expression etched on her face.
Her eyes conveyed empathy and worry as she spoke, "Hey, I heard about the explosion yesterday. Were you there?"
Felix licked his lips, looking over his shoulder to address her. "It's, um, complicated, Rio. I'll fill you in later. Right now, I'm just...hungry. Starving, in fact," he admitted, a half-hearted attempt at a smile playing on his lips.
"A-ah, okay." Rio's concern deepened, but she respected his need for space. "Take your time, Felix. But if you ever want to talk, I'm here."
As he finally managed to unlock the door, Felix nodded appreciatively. "Thanks, Rio. I'll catch up with you soon."
With that, he slipped into his apartment unit, leaving the lingering questions and concerns behind the closed door. Hungry and emotionally drained, he dashed to the refrigerator.
For the first time in hours, happiness swelled his heart. 'Thank god I got groceries last week.'
He pulled out leftovers, fruits, snacks—basically anything edible. Plates clattered as he hastily piled food onto the counter, a mix of precision and urgency in his movements reminiscent of someone ravenous after days without a meal.
With a fervour akin to a whirlwind, Felix grabbed a slice of pizza in one hand, an apple in the other, and a sandwich balanced precariously between his teeth. He munched on chips while gulping down juice straight from the carton, not bothering with manners or decorum in that moment of unadulterated hunger.
The scene was a chaotic ballet of devouring, with Felix darting from one item to another, savouring every bite as if it were his first meal in days. He might as well have been a whirlwind of hunger, barely stopping to breathe between bites.
The fridge door swung shut as he balanced an impressive array of food in his arms, finally settling at the table. There, amidst the scattered feast, Felix devoured his impromptu meal with the intensity of someone who hadn't eaten in weeks, the hunger slowly subsiding with each satisfying bite.
Felix found himself sinking into the embrace of his bed, exhaustion pulling at his eyelids like weighted curtains.
With a heavy sigh, he collapsed onto the soft mattress, the weight of the day finally catching up with him. The events, the unexpected confrontation in the alley, the emptiness of Reed's apartment, and the surge of hunger all conspired to drain him.
Lying there, surrounded by the remnants of his impromptu feast, Felix felt the weariness seep through every muscle and bone. The softness of the pillows cradled his head, and the warmth of the covers enveloped him like a comforting embrace.
He had no idea what was happening to him, but whatever it was, it lightened the burden in his heart.
***
Felix's eyes flipped open. He swung his feet off his bed, his muscles feeling oddly invigorated.
'Weird,' he thought to himself. 'Why don't I feel sleepy? It's like I'm wide awake.'
He blinked twice. Seriously, was this normal human behaviour? He knew some people were able to wake up easily but this was different. Right now, despite less than ten seconds passing, he felt like he could do anything, no shower necessary despite that normally being how he fully woke up.
'Or maybe I'm still anxious from yesterday.' His expression fell. Yeah, maybe it was that. Maybe his body was still in alert mode.
He didn't feel a tinge of morning exhaustion but that didn't mean he could skip out on cleaning himself. He went to the bathroom, washed his face, and did ordinary tasks.
That was the plan at least.
As he reached for the toothpaste, he exerted what he assumed would be a normal amount of pressure. However, the tube's contents didn't comply with his groggy morning intentions. With a subtle squeeze, a sudden surge of superhuman strength shot the toothpaste out like a high-pressure water hose.
Startled, Felix watched in astonishment as the toothpaste rocketed across the bathroom, splattering against the wall in an explosive burst of minty freshness. Specks of toothpaste adorned the mirror and countertop as if caught in a whirlwind.
Wide-eyed and bewildered, Felix blinked a few times, as though trying to process what had just happened. His newfound strength had taken him by surprise yet again, this time with a mundane task like brushing his teeth.
'Except…this doesn't feel like strength. This might be…no, am I going crazy? I'm not. No, no, wait—' His eyes went wide, a rush of memories coming in.
He remembered Reed.
("Well, not a probe," Reed said while nudging at the wires with his screwdriver. "A container, to be exact, containing the Extremis."
"W-what?"
"Herbie calibrated it to our blood," said Reed. "If I'm not able to defuse this, then there's a chance we'll live.")
It had to be! Extremis! Felix was injected with it! But…that didn't make any sense.
'Extremis isn't just some injection. You can shake it off the way I did. In the original Extremis, you would straight-up go into a coma. With Reed's help, I managed to lower that to a third of a day. That's still eight hours. I was asleep for half that.'
He checked himself in the mirror. He was…taller? Just a little, by maybe an inch. He lifted his shirt.
'Holy shit. Abs.' Slender muscles that, once identified, displayed just how jacked he was. He wasn't ripped but compared to the sack of bones he once was he might as well have been.
'Extremis is intended to push the body to perfection. Still, I mean, to see it in practice is way different than theorizing about it. Wait, if everything is perfect, then…'
The final test—his pants. He grabbed the waistband of his pants and boxers and took a peak. His heart leapt.
'Wow.'
Yep. His dick just got bigger. He wasn't going to give out the exact size but…yeah. It definitely got an upgrade. He got out of the bathroom, not thinking straight. He paced around in his kitchen, scratching his hair.
'This is crazy. This is way too crazy, but…I have to try.'
His heart was pounding like crazy. He paced for a few more minutes, thinking it over and rationalizing it to himself, before opening up a drawer and pulling out a knife.
"Alright, Felix. Easy does it."
Despite his words, he was shaking. The long chef knife, regardless of quality, was sharp enough to cut flesh.
"Come on," Felix muttered to himself, heart racing madly. "Come on."
In one fell swoop, he slashed himself.
A single drop of blood fell. Just one drop, before the wound closed. It took less than a second. He stared at his palm, holding it by the wrist, and gulped.
And the knife? The edges were suddenly cracked.
"I need to go to Daxter Lab."
***
The front door of the Daxter Lab building was upon him. He had brought the manual with him but he didn't need it. The entire bus ride, he was thinking. Thinking, remembering, and theorizing, all at once. His brain felt like it had been washed of all its muck and was capable of doing anything and everything.
"Algorithm Sigma, Phase Delta, Authorization: Faeth-One-Two-Seven."
A soft beep emerged from the passcode lock on the door. An ordinary person would think it would be just that: a number pad intended to protect the building. That couldn't be further from the truth. It was a voice recognition hardware connected to the H.E.R.B.I.E network.
At the sound of his voice, there was a loud click. Not faint, but loud, as if his hearing had been dialled up to eleven. The door slid open.
He zipped to the east wall and didn't need the manual to say the commands. It was like his brain was on fire today.
"Biometric clearance…" Last name, that was what the manual said. "...Faeth Alpha-Three-Nine."
He winced, listening to the breaks rearrange themselves and open up the elevator. His ears were almost excruciatingly good. He went in. He waited in the elevator. He was greeted.
"Hello, Dr. Faeth."
All H.E.R.B.I.E connected hardware shared the same memory. The elevator was no different, hence the greeting as he went underground.
"Did…you hear about Reed?" he asked, nearly inaudible.
"Yes. An…unfortunate accident. The Extremis was unable to be deployed in time, unlike with you, Dr. Faeth."
"I see."
He held out hope that maybe he was alive. A miracle through the power of a science he did not understand.
"So he's dead?" Felix asked one last time.
"His corpse has been confirmed through reports and CCTV imagery. Yes, Dr. Richards has left the physical world."
Silence. Even as the elevator doors opened and he entered the lab, Felix remained silent. Little Herbie waved at him but it wasn't the same. Not without Reed.
Even so, he had to get to the bottom of this. He took to the chair and did just that. The first thing he did was give a blood sample.
"Ngh." Pressing his thumb into the outline, he received a cut. Before he was able to suck on it, the blood was already gone.
"Processing."
The Fantastic Computer's main monitor was analyzing the biological data, which wasn't an easy thing. He suspected his blood had drastically changed.
"Tell me what happened. You mentioned Extremis, right? What did it do to me?"
The Fantastic Computer replied diligently.
"Extremis is a super-soldier solution. It is a bio-electronics package, fitted into a few billion graphite nanotubes and suspended in a carrier fluid. A magic bullet, like the original super-soldier serum—all fitted into a single injection. It hacks the body's repair centre—the part of the brain that keeps a complete blueprint of the human body."
'Okay, okay, I know this.'
While the explanation went on, he looked at the screen. Two full double-helixes, the physical structure of DNA, were on screen. One red, one blue. Before and after.
'Yeah, this is definitely beyond what Extremis offered,' Felix thought, his creator instincts kicking in. 'It's too drastic a change. The Extremis is focused on fixing sequences, not completely altering the genetic code.'
Also, the date. His eyes widened.
'I slept for an entire day!? What!?'
It was the fifth of April, a whole two and a half days since the incident.
The Fantastic Computer kept going. "When we are injured, we refer to that area of the brain to heal properly. Extremis rewrites the repair center. In the first stage, the body essentially becomes an open wound. The normal human blueprint is being replaced with the Extremis blueprint. The brain is being told the body is wrong. Extremis protocol dictates that the subject be placed on life support and intravenously fed nutrients at this point. However…"
"However?" Felix drawled.
"You have circumvented this step due to foreign radiation. Your DNA has been irreversibly changed."
"How? When?"
"From our analysis…" The DNA was ripped apart and analyzed in the monitor. "...nearly at the same time that you received the Extremis dosage. It has caused your strength, speed, and flexibility to reach inhumane levels."
"Like…by how much?"
"We do not know."
Woah.
So on top of having a healing factor that bordered on inhumane regeneration, he had super muscles!?
"What in the world changed my DNA?" Felix asked.
"From the data at hand, I cannot say."
So the Fantastic Computer didn't know? What the hell? How was that even possible?
'If it's out of H.E.R.B.I.E's data, then maybe it's something new…? Strength, speed, and flexibility...what could increase those traits?'
"By how much have my abilities increased?"
Loading, loading, loading. Beep. The computer responded, "We cannot give a numerical value without an analysis of muscles. However, at the minimum, it can be inferred that it is multiple times your own body weight. In all likelihood, you could break every strength-related world record."
'Strength multiple times my body weight? Wait, no, is it possible…? It might be farfetched but...did Alistaire's radioactive spiders cause this!?'
Somehow, when he was unconscious, it must have bitten him! Crossbones' men mentioned one radioactive spider went missing. In all the violence and chaos, it wasn't impossible. More importantly, if it had bitten him either before or after the Extremis dose, the radiation would have intermingled with Extremis and changed his DNA drastically. Exactly like how it was now.
'The whole purpose of that project was to imitate Gwen Stacy's powers! The purpose of every project at Oscorp is for the military! To create Super Soldiers! I'm…I'm a living example of that success!'
"To put it another way," the computer said, "if Gwen Stacy is Spider-Woman, then you must be Super Spider-Man. Theoretically, the difference in your abilities is night and day."