MARVEL-THE MULTIVERSE TRADER

After spending the morning humoring Peter, Ned, and Harry with displays of his new abilities — and listening to their never-ending stream of ridiculous prank ideas that came out their homone riddled brains — Nova finally made it back home.

The house felt heavier now. It always did these days. Quiet, dim, and carrying that lingering emptiness since his parents' passing.

He tossed his jacket aside and headed straight for the basement.

Flicking on the light, Nova descended the narrow steps. The basement wasn't particularly large, but it had always been one of the most secured parts of the house. He knew his parents — if there was ever a place to stash hidden surveillance, monitoring equipment, or secret caches, it would be down here.

And while it was probably just paranoia… paranoia was survival, especially when you'd grown up in a house where even the toaster might have a recording chip.

He took his time, moving through every corner with care. Eyes sweeping across the exposed ceiling beams, underneath the old workbench, inside dusty storage boxes, and behind shelving units. He extended his senses, using his powers to trace for any lingering energy signals, low-frequency transmissions, or unfamiliar tech signatures.

Nothing.

Not a blip, not a pulse, not the faintest trace of surveillance.

Still, Nova wasn't one to assume.

He double-checked vents, wall sockets, and even the overhead light fixture — one of the oldest spy cam tricks in the book. When he was certain it was clean, only then did he relax.

"Good," Nova muttered to himself, letting out a quiet breath. "Still private."

From his personal inventory, Nova withdrew a small collection of carefully chosen items, some he brought online and some he took out tech trash. Just a few metal components, processors, and spare tech pieces he found around the house, most likely his parents old tech.

Then he took out his laptop and his own old computer.

Setting everything neatly on the workbench, Nova gave it a final once-over.

Then, he turned the dial on his Omnitrix until Upgrade's silhouette appeared. Without hesitation, he slammed it down.

A sharp green flash filled the basement as his form shifted and transformed into the sleek, biomechanical body of Upgrade. His vision adjusted instantly, green HUD overlays dancing before his eyes.

Without wasting a second, Nova began absorbing the prepared tech and merging it with his computer.

The hum of merging tech filled the basement, a faint glow of neon green and silver circuitry flickering through the air as Upgrade worked. He moved with precision, absorbing metal, processors, and old circuits into his form, restructuring them at a molecular level. Components liquefied, reshaped, and fused together, guided by the exact schematics he'd crafted as Grey Matter.

Bit by bit, the scattered pieces on the workbench disappeared into him, their raw materials broken down and reassembled into something new.

After several long minutes, the last scrap of metal vanished. Nova took a step back as the final form materialized on the workbench in front of him — a sleek, obsidian-black laptop.

The design was clean and minimalist. Smooth, seamless panels with no visible ports or seams. The surface was a matte black finish that absorbed light rather than reflecting it, and when Nova ran a hand over it, it felt cool and impossibly smooth to the touch. No logos, no branding — just an unassuming black slab.

He let out a low breath, shifting back to his human form in a pulse of green light. The Omnitrix dial retracted back into place on his wrist as his body stabilized.

Nova reached out and powered the machine on. Instantly, the screen lit up with a crisp, deep green interface. The system booted faster than anything he'd ever used — advanced encryption protocols, adaptive software matrices, and predictive interface algorithms already operational.

It was fast. Faster than any machine on Earth should've been capable of with the resources he'd had.

But as Nova sat down, pulling up the diagnostic readouts and system schematics, a faint frown tugged at his lips.

"Not bad," he muttered. "But still not it."

Even with the advanced tech scavenged from around the house and salvaged online, it wasn't quite at the level Grey Matter's designs demanded. There were limitations. The processors, while impressive by Earth standards, lacked the density and efficiency of what Grey Matter could truly conceptualize. Some systems lagged just behind the optimal thresholds, and a few adaptive circuits hadn't stabilized the way he'd intended.

It worked — and by any measure of current Earth technology, it was a monster. A machine that could crack national-level encryption in minutes, run hyper-advanced simulations, and host AI-level computation without breaking a sweat.

But Nova knew it could be better. Much better.

"All it needs," he murmured to himself, tapping his fingers against the smooth desk surface, "are the right resources."

Which he is working towards to gather. Still, for now… it would do.

Shaking his head, Nova turned the dial on his Omnitrix once more. A familiar silhouette blinked into view, and with a press, a pulse of green light engulfed him. His tall frame shrank rapidly, bones reshaping, flesh morphing into the small, sharp-featured form of Grey Matter.

Landing lightly on the workbench, Nova flexed his tiny, dexterous fingers and hopped toward the laptop. As expected, the device's interface and structure immediately adjusted, resizing to accommodate his current form — a convenient function he built into the system's adaptive matrix.

Now standing before a console sized precisely for his diminutive alien body, Nova cracked his knuckles and got to work.

Streams of data filled the screen as he dove into the coding. He wasn't interested in building some overhyped, self-aware AI — for reasons even he, as Grey Matter, instinctively dismissed. There was something inherently wasteful and unstable about it. Not dangerous per se, but impractical. As if relying on something else to make decisions for you was an insult to what he could do himself.

Besides, there was elegance in personal control.

Line by line, he crafted a custom command matrix — fast, responsive, lean. A system that could process external data feeds, monitor encrypted networks, and manage his secure files while remaining completely offline and undetectable.

He built in redundancy protocols, adaptive resource allocation algorithms, and a multi-layered firewall structure no Earth system would crack.

Within minutes, lines of shimmering green code raced down the screen in perfect synchrony.

Command prompts blinked as subsystems initialized, one after another.

Baseline Operations: Online.

External Signal Sweep: Active.

Quantum Key Protocol: Secure.

Grey Matter allowed a faint, satisfied smirk to touch his small face. This — this was proper work, work of an Galvan.

"All systems optimal… within local resource limitations," Nova muttered to himself, inputting one last command.

The program shimmered into place, a network of clean, efficient code built to serve him — no AI ego involved.

Nova leaned back, folding his tiny Grey Matter arms.

"A start."

The screen pulsed gently in response, awaiting his next order.

Then Nova connected the laptop with the network and without wasting time, he uploaded the data file containing Formula X — the one he'd received in the Novice Gift Pack.

A single glance at the scrolling data made even his hyper-intelligent Grey Matter mind itch. It was one of the most remarkable formulas he'd ever seen — a formula capable of pushing any living species to the absolute peak of their natural physical limit.

And yet, while the SYSTEM had provided the formula itself… it hadn't supplied the resources required to actually make it.

That was the problem.

He watched as his custom program began parsing the formula's components, scanning the given resources and immediately starting to compare them with other known materials that could potentially act as substitutes.

[TIME REQUIRED: 07:00:00]

Nova nodded, leaning back in his chair. That was one more task set in motion.

His next priority was already waiting in the back of his mind — creating his own secret base. There was no way he could keep using his basement for long. Too many risks. The biggest one being SHIELD.

He needed somewhere off-grid. Somewhere no one would think to look.

Just as Nova was mentally running through possible locations — abandoned buildings, old service tunnels, hidden maintenance sectors, maybe in hills/mountains or maybe beneath ocean?— his phone vibrated on the workbench.

He picked it up and saw a message from Harry.

HARRY: Hey Nova! How are you mate?

Nova blinked at the screen, then quickly typed back.

NOVA: Very busy. If this is another hormone-fueled scheme, I'm blocking you.

The reply came fast.

HARRY: Wow, harsh. I was actually inviting you to something epic this time.

NOVA: Get to the point.

HARRY: The Carnival, man! Mayor's going ahead with it. Old-school Unity Day-style — fireworks, rides, bands, food stalls, the works. Starts the day after tommorow at Riverside Park.

Nova's eyes narrowed slightly. He remembered exactly what happened at that event in the original timeline. Green Goblin's attack… chaos… injuries…

He smirked. Lets see if same things play out, if they do, it will make his work easy. Altough he will later feel sorry for Harry but....

Nova shook his head and texted: Didn't think they'd go through with it.

HARRY: Yeah, figured with all the protests, mutant scare and new goverment department mess, they'd scrap it. But nope. Full-on carnival. Saying to boost public morale or something.

A pause — then another message.

HARRY: Also… Gwen's gonna be there.

Nova sighed, a dry smirk pulling at his lips.

NOVA: And?

HARRY: *Cough cough* Liz *Cough cough*

NOVA: There it is.

HARRY: Hey, priorities, man. Come on — huge crowd, fun night, fireworks and ladies. Don't be a ghost.

Nova stared at the screen smiling.....

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CHAPTER:- (42- THE DIAGON ALLEY) IS AVAILABLE ON MY P@TREON.

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