I'm Not A Masochist, I Swear! Maybe Just A Little Sadist
During his stay at the HYDRA base, Shen built various equipment to test his abilities and special facilities for training.
Although he had been constantly training to adjust to his growing abilities, he never had the chance to actually measure and quantify it.
'I should build a DBZ scouter so that I can yell "My power level is over 9000!" in shock' he laughed while fastening in the final bolt of arguably, "the most dangerous equipment" he'd ever built.
With that done, he dusted his hands in a satisfied manner and decided to start with the testing.
The first test he did was the strength test. He started with his own body weight which was easy as carrying a baby. He doubled his body weight and not feeling anything, slowly continued the increment. He was surprised when he reached 400lb which still felt comfortable. So, he continued the increment and was absolutely shocked when he reached 750lb where he was finally starting to feel his limit. With a final burst of raw strength, he was able to carry 800lb but not any more than that.
It is said that the highest limit a 'natural human male' can over-head lift is at least 600 lbs, but no more than 700 lbs. The weight of 800 lbs is the greatest amount a human can lift, within the Marvel Universe, without being considered superhuman.
According to the 'official' Marvel database, Captain America's full limits of strength is lifting up to 1,200 lbs with a maximum effort which, in hindsight, isn't too far from his own.
But then again, Cap has also shown feats way beyond that limit, and with the physics of comics and fictional worlds being all over the place, he'd take everything with a grain of salt.
• Conclusion - Strength at the pinnacle of natural human potential of 800lb; Compared to Captain America's 1,200lb with the Super Soldier Serum. [A/N Overhead Press]
Next, he moved on to the speed test while keeping in mind Usain Bolt's 27.78 mph record.
He started at a steady pace and was able to run at 25 mph very comfortably. He kept increasing his speed and his eyes widened as he easily passed 27... 28, reaching 30 mph.
He started to feel his limit at 36mph and with a final burst of speed, hit 40mph.
While taking a time to recover, he closed his eyes trying to calculate an estimate for Cap's speed.
In 'The Winter Soldier,' when he was running circles around Sam Wilson (Falcon) in that hilarious "On your left" scene, he runs at about 26 mph at a comfortable and sustainable pace.
He then thought about the scenes with him in full sprint.
In Captain America: The First Avenger, right after his transformation Rogers is able to keep up with the getaway car carrying the HYDRA spy and run faster than the regular traffic.
Based on the performance of cars in the 1940s and the speed limit of ≈ 30mph in New York City at the time, he managed to overtake them and keep up an amazing pace throughout that run, probably running ≈ 35 - 40 mph at a minimum.
In the impressive 'Civil War' chase scene, based on the speed limit of the area, length of the cars, and how quickly it appeared they passed the cars, Captain America and Black Panther were chasing after Bucky at a minimum of ≈ 60mph.
As for Black Panther... well, since black 'panthers' in the wild, depending on species, can go up to 50 mph, and assuming Bast bestowed abilities comparable to the said creature, he should be comparable to that speed at a minimum.
• Conclusion - Maximum burst of speed at 40mph; Comparable to that of a newly enhanced Captain America running at a sustainable pace.
After recovering, he hesitated a little, but still moved on to the next test.
He stood in front of a device for a good second, with his hand hovering over a tempting red button that said: "Do Not Push!" and a smaller note below that said: "Seriously, don't do it.."
He finally sighed and slammed the button down and within that very second, a gigantic red boxing glove attached to a spring launched forward and smashed him in the face, *BAM!*, sending him flying into the reinforced titanium wall where he was embedded into an X-shaped hole.
Obviously, this wasn't a run-of-the-mill Wile E.Coyote spring gloves made by the ACME corporation.
This device was made by using traces of Carbonadium among other metals with unnatural strength and hardness from the HYDRA warehouse. It was then coated generously with Flubber making the spring force exerted extra effective. Even the actual spring was made by using the solidified form of the said 'magical' material.
He was not a masochist by any means, but once his big brain started working, it couldn't be stopped. So here he was, embedded in the wall by his own creation, the most dangerous equipment, also affectionately known as the 'Boop' glove.
After he got himself out of the X-shaped hole in the wall, he noticed that although he didn't have regeneration, he had extraordinarily efficient healing. His stamina's sustainability and recovery speed were at least four times that of a regular person.
He knew that he would be able to survive multiple bullet wounds in non-lethal areas, but he wasn't going to test that.
• Conclusion - Enhanced durability; Can withstand punches from the Winter Soldier, with the titanium bionic arm.
In terms of reaction speed, based on the Flubber enhanced giant punching weapon of mass destruction, he would be able to easily avoid arrows and bullets, with the help of his overall enhanced senses and perception.
He even had a very minor version of the 'spider-sense', or danger sense, which can usually only be attained with a mountain of abundant experiences like that of Black Widow and Hawkeye.
• Conclusion - If they could avoid bullets with their inferior physique and senses, so could he.
'Hell, even that little girl, Hit-Girl, from the movie 'Kick Ass' was dodging bullets like me dodging negativity' he thought while dusting himself.
Although Shen had not reached the category of 'Enhanced Human', his abilities were at the absolute peak of a natural human limit.
There was a reason why he was conducting these tests, besides having a d**k measuring contest with the Cap and Avengers. He was trying to estimate his survivability chances when he returned back home. He would be sent back to the exact time he left, inside the chaotic cabin of rotating doom.
With Shen's current overall capability being slightly weaker than the super serum enhanced Captain America, it stands to reason that it should be enough to barely survive the general crash since he too survived the crash on the Arctic glacier.
But that was the best-case scenario and at this point, Murphy was almost his best friend. In the movie, the aircraft was forced into a landing in the snow, with an intact body.
His situation, on the other hand, was much more perilous. The plane was torn apart into pieces by the ocean and was still tumbling into the water at very high speeds.
Shen needed to get more powerful to ensure that he would survive. Not survive with critical injuries but completely intact and unharmed. And to do so, he would need the Super Soldier Serum.
According to the original events, the HYDRA agent lurking in the US was intercepted by the newly enhanced Cap while escaping with the serum. He was caught even though he had already left in a submarine.
The serum was accidentally destroyed, the agent revealed the identity of the organization hidden in the dark by yelling "Hail Hydra" like an idiot and then committed suicide, and with Dr. Escrine's death, the formula and production method for the super-soldier serum died along with him. The operation, therefore, ended in a complete and utter disaster.
This time around, he would not take any chances and go there himself. He couldn't leave it to any HYDRA agent, regardless of their experience since Captain America's plot armor and protagonist's halo are simply too powerful. 'Its over 9000!'
'If you want something done right, do it yourself' he thought as he left to make preparations for a long-term leave.
After this period of organizational adjustment and personnel transfer, he has been able to effectively lead HYDRA towards his vision. Various covert operations, construction, and research have been moving forward on the right track.
In order to prevent any unforeseen accidents, he decided to spend several more months to grasp the organization in absolute control once and for all.
He disposed of many people who would get in his way, like the inspectors sent by Hitler to confront him about 'his' trip to Tonsberg. He sent all members who were planted by Hitler, those who were more loyal to Nazi sentiments than 'Red Skull', and those having second thoughts to different bases around Europe that would be sacrificed to Captain America and the allies later on. Of course, no one except for Shen knew that these bases would be abandoned.
All those who stayed in Norway and the other secure bases were all basically a cult of diehard followers of the 'Red Skull.'
When Shen was training or testing his abilities, the soldiers around would often witness his 'superhuman' abilities. Shen could feel it, their loyalty and worship towards him. He could see the way the soldiers looked at him with fanatical eyes, almost as if he were their god.
During this time, Shen himself was not just remaining idle. He was not only training just for control and precision like he has been doing so far, but actually trained like a maniac to push himself to the limit.
He started utilizing massive weights like Zoro and although he didn't have a gravity chamber yet, he wore specially developed weighted clothes all the time while increasing the weight after every period of adjustment.
Flubber was efficient like that. Since mentioned before, Flubber is ductile and malleable (can be shaped into threads without losing toughness), and can be in solid form, it was easy to make after a few attempts of trial and error.
The property of Flubber is to generate and store energy upon impact. Usually, when force is applied to a mass, it will accelerate (When kicked, a ball will roll forward).
In the case of the Flubber clothes, it was designed to absorb any force or impact as a compressed spring force increasing the overall mass.
So every time he is hit, instead of being pushed back, his clothes absorb the force of impact and make themselves heavier. Of course, there were some kinks to figure out like lowering the weight as needed.
As of right now, the mass could be decreased by releasing the stored force in the form of acceleration. Meaning, he'd go bouncing around all over the place if it wasn't controlled.
If controlled, it could increase his speed astonishingly, or if its released in the form of a punch, it would generate enormous impact.
He could also potentially use it like Luffy's Gear Second, which is basically highly compressed spring force.
Essentially Luffy accelerates the blood flow by forcing more blood through his blood vessels, which increases the spring force in his rubber body, thus increase his fighting ability.
Imagine fighting the Winter Soldier, where each impact from his bionic hand is stored and released back to his face with an even greater force.
This was all amazing, for sure, but there was a huge drawback. The weighted clothes made by Flubber looked a little like Guy and Rock Lee's jumpsuits. It had to be an overall jumpsuit to spread out the weight evenly across his body.
Although he could change the color, he didn't do so. He had respect for both Guy and Lee and the original color of Flubber in the movie was green as well. So as an homage, he kept his weighted jumpsuits green.
This didn't mean he was going to wear it in public though. It was meant for training and he used it as under armor inside his clothes.
After his daily special training in all attributes and abilities, he would then gain practical fighting experience.
Every day he would assign the most skilled fighters available in the base as his punching ba.. *cough* as his training partners. He would of course portray it as, training for them since the original Red Skull was a very experienced fighter.
Within the first few minutes of the training on the first day, he was able to easily analyze each of their skills and learn from them. From then on, he would completely wipe the floor with them even with the constantly increasing weights.
But he still continued with these training sessions constantly rotating with the best HYDRA had to offer while suppressing his powers to the best of his abilities. At some point, he even had Dr. Zola build a few exoskeletons exclusively for these sessions.
Eventually, he was able to completely annihilate these highly experience fighters wearing exoskeletons in group fights, while wearing weights and a blindfold.
This not only helped him improve his skills by leaps and bounds, but also increased his position in his subordinate's eyes, as if that were even possible. Compared to the old Red Skull, him personally 'training' the agents every single day had more impact in their hearts than he'd imagined.
Nonetheless, he absolutely loved fighting and crushing them. It wasn't that he was a sadist, maybe just a little, but he just enjoyed a good battle. He was a battle maniac, a training fanatic, and a bona fide genius.
After a few hours of the daily battle session, he would move on to practice his marksmanship training. He had never used guns before, and even after he'd acquired a few, he still relied on his throwing knives.
Now that he had access to a various assortment of weapons and proper training facility, he used it to the fullest advantage.
On the first day, he observed the various operatives practice their shooting skills and learned from them.
Steady breath, relaxed posture, firm grip, proper aim, steady pressure on the trigger, squeeze, and fire. Then follow through to avoid jerking and recover.
He then started practicing with different weapons from pistols, to assault rifles, and snipers. He had a private shooting facility so he wasn't afraid to miss or make mistakes like jamming the weapons. With his abilities, he learned extremely fast and after a few trials and errors, he was able to shoot targets effectively.
Once comfortable, he practiced different positions, standing, sitting, kneeling, prone. Once he was able to effectively shoot still targets in any position, he started practicing with moving targets.
Soon, he was able to shoot moving targets in any position at the maximum range capacity of the weapons being used.
Guns might seem a bit underwhelming after watching enhanced superheroes flying around, punching giant alien vessels in the air, but Shen knew how effective weapons could be if used efficiently like John Wick.
He knew he would be able to build weapons that could actually pack some punch, and with the use of his storage space, he would be able to reload in an instant and switch between different weapons as necessary.
The thought of John Wick brought "Gun Fu" to his mind. It is the incorporation of guns and weapons into actual martial arts. He closed his eyes and started analyzing all the moves in the film series.
In the movie, John's effortless portrayal of an assassin who is incredibly talented at using firearms would immensely complement his own style. In the entire series, he doesn't just seem to be in control, he is in control.
After analyzing all of John Wick's moves and techniques in the movies, Shen started to incorporate them into his own fighting style. He blended fast-paced martial arts with firearms to create one cohesive fighting system. He combined everything he had learned so far, various Chinese Kungfu, Japanese jiu-jitsu, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Jeet Kune Do, Kali, Krav Maga, Muay Thai, tactical 3-gun, and standing Judo.
This new 'gun fu' fighting style put emphasis on rapid-fire and quick draw techniques while using weapons in a fast and efficient manner. He then started practicing making quick transitions from one weapon to another, reloading pistols and machine guns in seconds.
After doing this, he still felt like it was missing something. So he closed his eyes and started analyzing again, different movies, anime, games.
Sam Fisher in 'Splinter Cell', Chris and Glenn close range gunfight in 'Resident Evil: Vendetta', Tatsuya in 'The Irregular At Magic Highschool', Charlize Theron in 'The Old Guard', Angelina Jolie curving the bullet in 'Wanted', Keanu in 'The Matrix', Black Lagoon, Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, he analyzed them all. Although a lot of them were insignificant and some just absolutely absurd, he still started incorporating what he found compatible.
Finally, he came upon that tiny missing part of the puzzle, Gun-Kata from the movie 'Equilibrium.'
Developed through the analysis of thousands of gunfights, Gun Kata is based on scientific analysis of bullet trajectory and range which can accurately estimate the possible mathematical outcomes of a gunfight. It is statistically possible to determine where an individual is located and where all shots will be delivered from in any particular gunfight.
The user of this ability is capable of calculating the most precise angle for targeting an opponent and predicting where to be in order to avoid return fire by the enemy.
Each fluid position in this marital arts represents a maximum kill zone, inflicting maximum damage on the maximum number of opponents while keeping the defender clear of the trajectories of return fire. The rote mastery of this art is said to increase firing efficiency by no less than 120%.
With his enhanced analytical and calculation abilities, this martial art was the perfect piece of the puzzle to complete his comprehensive fighting skills.
Now he just needed to build himself two sexy handguns to match his sexy car, and he'd officially be a certified badass.
'Dante has his Ebony and Ivory while Alucard has his Casull and Jackal. What should I call mine?' he pondered as he went to get cleaned up.
Later that day, Shen went to retrieve the sword he found in the Viking King's casket from the research department. He had some sent agents to investigate the sword and gather large amounts of historical data.
After comprehensive research, it was concluded that this sword is likely to be the legendary sword of King Arthur, Caliburn.
Legend has it that King Arthur's first sword, the sword from the stone, was broken in the battle with his illegitimate son, Modred. Later, Excalibur was given to Arthur by the Lady of the Lake in order to defeat Mordred, and it became Arthur's second sword.
Caliburn was not only the Sword in the Stone that chooses the King in the legend, but also the most powerful Holy Sword in existence. It was supposedly unbeatable as long as the wielder's heart was pure.
Arthur's heart grew dark from his hatred towards his step-sister, Morgan le Fay, and that's why the sword broke.
The sword is very consistent with the descriptions in the history books in terms of style, pattern, and characteristics. It was very likely the same sword from the stone, that was later broken and somehow fell into the hands of the Viking King.
If Red Skull was able to find the Tesseract, a treasure straight from Odin's vault in a rundown church, it wouldn't be too farfetched for him to find a broken piece of Arthurian legend. Especially considering the constant Viking raids during the 9th and 10th centuries.
Looking at the oldest welsh text, he was surprised to find that King Arthur fought "enemies from Llychlyn (Norway) and Denmark" when he was alive, which further solidified his claim.
Now, this legendary sword of the king had fallen into Shen's hands.
Dr. Zola studied its material and concluded that it probably wasn't made of anything from earth. It could've been forged by Merlin using a meteorite that fell from the sky.
The hardness, toughness, and sharpness of the sword are very high, far exceeding the currently available alloys.
This addition was a pleasant surprise to Shen who added it to his growing arsenal of weapons inside his dimensional space. He almost felt like Gilgamesh, storing all the world's treasures, he claimed into the Gate Of Babylon.
This reminded him that he should probably name his ability as well.
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The next chapter will contain a comprehensive summary of his progressive power scale including pictures in the comment section for a visual representation.