Chapter 26 : New log

[Author note : New Iron Lad squib chapter. As I thought, I haven't really been able to write as much as I would have liked this week. I only managed to get 1 KoSP chapter ahead, and a half Iron Lad squib written at the time I'm writing this. Kinda bummed to be honest. Also, those people who could just post a chapter a day ? Respect ! I just can't do it... Sometimes, the words come easy and sometimes, the laziness is stronger. Anyways...

If you're interested in my stories or want to encourage me, please check out my Patréon : https://www.patréon.com/user?u=66371596 (replace the é by a normal e) or look for Cathbel on their website

KoSP : 8 advanced chapters

The Squib who became Iron Lad... In DC : 8 advanced chapters

AoH : Prologue + 6 chapters (exclusive)

MoH : 8 chapters (Exclusive)

VOG : 6 chapters (exclusive)

Enjoy and please tell me what you think of it !]

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So… That happened ! I've revealed my identity to the No-majs. I figured that, if they knew about me, maybe MACUSA would have a harder time making my life difficult. The thing is… I'm pretty sure that, be it MACUSA or the No-majs government, they are after my Technomancy for their own end. I mean… that's what happened to Tony in the movies. Sure, the government was a festering nest of corruption and Hydra assets, but… Well, the DC reality isn't any better.

Amanda Waller with her Suicide Squad, Lex Luthor with his government contract and his ties to the military, Ra's Al Ghul's League of Assassins… That's only the people I have to look out for at the top of my head !

The Justice League hasn't been formed yet, which means the heroes or vigilantes' impact on politics is pretty much nonexistent. I'm hoping that, since I'm now a public figure, I'll be able to slowly change that. Unfortunately, it'll take time and I'm sure it won't be easy… People will push back for their own selfish interests or simply because they can't trust me.

The fact that they won't be able to find out where I live is another reason for them not to, after all… My parent's home is still in the In-Between, the pocket dimension, to protect them from the Ministry and its forces. I wonder if I should buy a house or create another base of operation in the No-maj's world…

Then again, in the future, because of the public's opinion of the League, the government will have to pay attention to heroes. The fact that some of them have an insane amount of personal power in one form or another is probably another reason why their voice will have such weight… On the other hand, all I have is my armor, my mind and my money.

Okay… That's not so bad actually. Let's just hope they won't impose economic sanction on me and my company in order to force my hand. Otherwise, I'll have to resort to either creating creating shell companies under an alias to operate, or rely even more on the goblins… The greedy little bastards would be too happy about that.

It's not like I don't like them. They have taught me a lot ! But their services always comes with a cost… Not to mention, they consider me like a wizard, even though I don't have my own magic. I guess that's the results of centuries of wars, and the fact that their kind, along with other humanoid(ish) magical races don't have the right to have wands. Do they need to, though ? If I help them find a loophole, maybe they'll be more amenable to give me discounts… Symmetra, make a note of it, please !

Moving on ! Let's talk about my improvements. I've completed a number of projects over the last few years. The 'lightsaber project', the 'Hoverskate'… Unfortunately, the 'Matrix Uploader' and the 'Cortical stack' are still out of reach at the moment. I'm positive now, that studying and mastering the Mind Arts, namely Occlumency and Legilimency, isn't enough. Perhaps for the first one, but the mind wouldn't be able to take in such a high amount of information, so fast. Let's not even mention the virtual reality aspect of it ! I need to study the field of illusion in depths and there just aren't that much content about it in this country… Frankly, the Mind Arts and its manipulation in general are often considered taboo, with reasons of course. But it proves to be rather annoying for my research and development. In order for the human brain to sustain the 'upload' of vast amounts of information, I'll need to study other avenues… Healing, maybe neurology and medicine. Or work on cybernetic implants, but then I'm positive I'll need knowledge of neurology for this… And I'm not sure if it's advanced enough here… Let's table it for a later time for now !

As for the Cortical stack idea… It's even more difficult ! Not only the information of the mind, the stack'll need to house the soul of someone. And the current knowledge of Soul magic is abysmally small. Most of it is considered dark and thus banned or worse : destroyed ! I guess studying Horcruxes would be a step in the right direction… Maybe. But I'm not interested in fragmenting a soul and putting said fragment in a subpar container. What I want is for the whole soul to be transferred and be switched from body to body… How the hell did I even create Mel in the first place ? Or Winston and Symmetra ? I'm pretty sure they possess their own souls… Something to look into IF it proves safe for them !

Another possible way is to ask for help from less morally inclined magic practitioners… John Constantine, for instance, with his demonic blood and gray character, might be a good source of information into soul magic. Assuming that the House of Mystery contains, as I think it does, an expensive library of ancient and forbidden magic. The trick here would be to convince the British to let me borrow or copy some of his books… If I recall correctly, Constantine is a give-and-take type of guy so I'd probably need to strike some kind of deal with him. Well… If he doesn't try and double-cross me or something. After all, he did steal Shazam's powers from the young Billy Batson in one iteration. And in the same one, he tricked Amethyst, AKA Amy Winston or Amaya (her real name), into bringing a supervillain back to Gemworld… Granted, the supervillain in question, Eclipso was originally a denizen of Gemworld, banned for being a douchebag to Earth. What goes around, comes around, I guess !

Still, I'm pretty sure those two examples aren't the only times where Constantine fooled people. Maybe his duplicity comes from his demonic heritage ?

Giovanni Zatara might be a better choice… I'd have to have Zatanna introduce me to her father, though, and she's Sue's friend. Not mine. Or perhaps a greek god, now that I'm apprenticed to Hephaestus… Yeah, no ! That's a bad idea… Greek gods are even worse than Constantine !

Now, let's talk about the M-Phones. Although they're a product that bring a disgusting amount of money, the truth is that… They were meant to be prototype for something much bigger and personal. I mean, that's true and at the same time, it isn't… I always planned on giving the Wizarding World an alternative to owls and letters. Compared to the Internet and phones, there was too much of a lag between someone sending the letter, and the recipient receiving it. With my M-phones, that lag had almost disappeared !

But the magic app, that I made seem like it was to give Squibs the feeling of being able to cast magic… Well, it wasn't true. At the end of the day, that's what it ended up being but my original idea behind it was… to have magic of my own. Create a special focus for myself and be able to use magic like a wizard could !

The truth was, it was only one of the ideas I worked on to get magic of my own. Using magic through the use of an external magic source and an intermediary like my armor and its operating system, or my enchanted suits, and now with phones. This was just one idea. Or at least, one idea which gave birth to others, that were still close to the original one.

I'm actually pretty close to creating a technomancer wand. It would basically do everything a regular wand could do for its wizard, but for me. It was supposed to contain its own miniaturized power source, as well as the data for every spell I could program inside it. Obviously, it also had voice and thought activation functions. Unfortunately, I currently still had problem with the miniaturizing the reactor part. Not to mention, the space needed for the 'hard drive'…

But what if I just changed it ? Instead of a wand, maybe a gauntlet or a glove… or a staff ? Something to think about in the future. To minimize the size of the hard drive, perhaps I could also create different foci for different purposes ? Like a rifle focus for combat spells, a staff ones for… I don't know. The problem now would be with the spell casting itself. In order for witches and wizards to cast their spells with wands, they often need to vocalize it a certain way… and that's not the problem. Except for the fact that people know what you cast. The problem is in the wand motions ! Along with the vocalization, they move their hands a certain way. I'll need to find an alternative for this… Unless ?

Forget it ! I don't need to reproduce inefficient ways to cast spells ! Codes and the use of legilimency are enough ! Anyways, it's not like my spells are exactly the same as the ones witches and wizards use. They're only inspired from them. There's really no reason why I should limit myself by imitating them…

On another note, I'm still looking for a way for my body to generate its own magic. For that, I have two ideas, with one being a little more possible than the other for me right now. Genetic manipulation and nano-machines. The first, well… I'd need to study biology, biochemistry and genetics at the very least. And once I started, I'll probably find out that I need to study other subjects too. I have started a little bit, because it is a subject I find rather interesting. But with everything else on my plate, it'll take a while to even start experimenting on genetic manipulation.

At the moment, nano-machines are much easier for me to make. I'll still have to study biology and bioengineering, since otherwise, my body might reject them… And that's not the only problems I'm facing for this. In fact, it's just the last one and I shouldn't even consider it right now. First thing first, I have to find a way to manufacture them. Nano-machines are, as the name implies, extremely tiny machines. They're supposed to travel through blood so… About the size of red cells. The thing is, they also are supposed to be very complicated : a computer as well as a robot in a microscopic size. Moreover, it needs to be able to work in a network so they need some kind of communication capabilities. Finally, they need to be able to interface with me somehow, not only in order for me to operate the magic, but also to let me know if there's some kind of problem with them.

If it's the latter, I also need to be able to either update their system, or if the problem comes from the hardware, flush them out of my system safely. Needless to say, that's something that'll take me a long while to figure out…

Hm… That's about everything I wanted to talk about. Now I'll need to face the music. I bet my family's gonna be real mad at me. Ah~ !

* * * * *

On a small island nation, in another continent, a Dark Lord's lapdog, his metaphorical tail wagging, brought him the newspaper. The lapdog in question was actually, a bitch : Bellatrix Lestrange.

« Master ! We found him ! We know who he is ! » She exclaimed, a mad gleam in her dark eyes as she brandished the newspaper.

The front page read : Silver Lad is a squib ! Ned Stark reveals himself !

With a swift movement of his spider-like hands, Voldemort snatched the paper from the witch's hands and started reading in silence. Once he finished reading the article, he gnashed his teeth in anger. The interview was just something copied out of a muggles' newspaper from across the Atlantic : no mention of him was made… The child behaved as if… the Dark Lord didn't matter. He exposed himself, after crossing him. Twice ! He had the gall to forget about him ? Or did he grow so arrogant that he thought himself better than he, the greatest Dark Lord that ever lived ? The one to vanquish and conquer Death itself ?

In his anger, the atmosphere around Voldemort grew dreary, cold and menacing. He refrained from lashing out at his faithful lackey, but the urge to cast the cruciatus curse made him clench his fists until his knuckles grew even paler. Barely containing the anger in his voice, he ordered :

« I want him brought to me. I want him to beg for mercy ! Kill his friends, his family, even his pets ! Bring. Him. TO ME ! » He yelled the last part as a burst of raw magic answered his shout, pushing back the witch slightly.

She fell to her knees and answered :

« Your will be done, my Lord ! »