Chapter 2.1- All of Infinity in the Palm of my Hands (MCU; Clark Kent SI)

"So, Master Kent, I hope you understand the gravity of what has just occurred," the solicitor spoke to me while we sat in a luxurious office. I nursed the glass of wine that had been given to me. Underage drinking clearly didn't matter much to these people.

"You say my grandfather left me a legacy in his will?" I asked, waiting for him to continue the explanation that had been hinted at in the letter. In the past six months, Kelex and I had spent the time putting the finishing touches on my identity. There was no difficulty in hacking into Britain’s school records and registering me as a home-schooled student. The A-levels had been a challenge to register for. I had to forge or even just hack my way into a lot of systems to get my shot, and when I did, I didn’t hold back one whit. I’d been a lawyer in my first life. In this one, I was augmented with the intellect of Krypton’s foremost scientist. Let’s just say with that combination, I’d set a new record for the exams. A completely perfect score.

I would have kept a lower profile if I didn't have lofty goals ahead of me. True freedom. A rat had no freedom stuck on the ground. No, the only true freedom would be found in the skies. By rising above everyone else. That's the freedom I desire.

"Yes, he did. He initially intended to leave it to you plainly as a grant, but as my client, I advised him to avoid the scandal that such a legacy would leave on the family's name. Instead, we’ve used a half-secret will that names me as the trustee for the money left to you," I nodded as he spoke, following along with his explanation.

"That means the money left to you, some fifty million pounds, is being held in trust in my own account. As you remain underage, I will execute a monthly stipend for you to the tune of a hundred thousand. Once you reach your twenty-first birthday, the entirety of the sum will be transferred to your account," he said with a placid smile, a smile that fooled no one. I could see it in the way he tensed as he said those words. He was used to dealing with spoiled rich kids that would rant and rave at such limitations, but honestly, I didn’t care.

Could I have Kelex compel him to change his mind? Maybe. But what did it matter? I’d be in school for the next four years either way, and a 100 grand a month was more than enough for anyone to live off of. More than enough for me to live with absolute freedom, to be honest.

"I agree to those terms," I said, watching him release a breath before continuing. "On one condition." I raised a single finger and let him tense up before I spoke, "I want a car." He just nodded as if he got requests like those all the time.

He handed me a card from his drawer. It had my new name etched on it in fancy cursive, ‘Clark Kent’. I held the metallic card and flipped it around my fingers.

"Pay for the car with that. The amount will be deducted directly from the legacy. Needless to say, don't go crazy," I replied, taking his outstretched hand in my own. I returned to the apartment that Kelex had acquired for our use. He'd paid for it using a bunch of shady means and money hacked from some poor warlord's Swiss account. I was sure that whoever looked into the apartment would find nothing beyond a false trail that would lead to the Late Lord Kent.

"Honey, I'm home!" I shouted once I entered the place. "Oh Kal-El, you shouldn't have," Kelex said in faux reproach as he eyed the ice cream I held in my hands with greed.

I just tossed the tub at him and watched him dig in. While I'd been unconscious, Kelex had made himself a quasi-human body of sorts. He'd done it without any orders from me, but determined it to be the best-suited form for maintaining my human disguise. I agreed; there needed to be an explanation for who had raised me all these years. I didn't agree that Kelex had needed a body, but I would allow him the independence.

After all, I'd already set a multitude of limitations on what he could and could not do to prevent me from being the one to create Ultron. Ultron with Kryptonian tech was a nightmare that I was willing to do a lot to ensure couldn't come into fruition.

Kelex's new body was modeled after Idris Elba's to a large extent. He'd changed the appearance a bit, opting for a full head of hair and a clean-shaven face to differentiate himself from the Asgardian who watched over the entire galaxy with his all-seeing eyes. It was a handsome body. Not as handsome as the one I'd been blessed with, but who could compare to Superman? Not many people. I stared at the mirror as I walked towards the kitchen to grab a bottle of water. I looked just like Superboy from the Young Justice show - well-defined cheekbones and jaw, along with sharp blue eyes and silky black hair. Unlike any version of Superman or Superboy I'd ever seen, I opted to wear my hair long. It reached down to my shoulders when I let it down, but for now, I had it tied up in a top knot.

"How are my applications coming in?" I asked as I chugged down bottle after bottle.

"Harvard, Yale, MIT, and Princeton have already received your applications. I need you to look through the last of the essays before I send them to the rest of the schools on the list," Kelex said, making me nod and stretch out my hand.

He passed me a tablet, tossing it across the apartment with ease. I caught it with similar ease while staring at the body Kelex built with suspicion.

I'd chosen to challenge myself to figure out what enhancements and abilities he'd granted himself. I added unnatural coordination to the list. No human body should be able to move so efficiently while making a throw like that one.

I read through letter after letter at enhanced speeds. Part of me just wanted to return to the fortress and wait until it was time for the new semester, but I needed to be seen. I had to have some sort of real-world presence in case I ever got investigated. I wouldn’t put it past S.H.I.E.L.D. getting suspicious about me in a few years, so I had to live like I was being investigated right now.

XXXXXX- September

At the end of the day, none of my fears proved fulfilled. I'd received acceptance letters from virtually all the schools I'd applied to. A mixture of my stellar grades plus the notable lack of extracurriculars being explained away by my unique family situation. I guess it wasn't every day that the bastard grandson of a noble who had been hidden away and raised in seclusion applied to your school. It was a tale fitting for a movie.

Of course, in the end, the choice was practically made for me. It was 2008, and looking around the world before me, even with the advancements from geniuses like Tony Stark, the world was still very much in the tween years of the Internet Age. Most of the software giants I'd known from my old life did not exist here. So,  I saw my path to freedom. 

With that said, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was the practical choice. I'd sent them my acceptance email the moment they'd sent theirs to reserve my spot, and I'd spent the months since then preparing to move and live in Boston. Kelex had been able to swing us a penthouse apartment. Not really "us," more me. Kelex was curious about humanity. He wanted to experience it all. The Eiffel Tower, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Louvre. He was going to see it all with his human body, and I couldn't be happier for him. Especially since I wasn't going to be losing any of the ability to rely on him.

You see, as a Kryptonian Artificial Intelligence, Kelex was large. Very large. He could only fit some sliver of himself within the body he'd designed. He'd done the same to all the technology I'd designed for my own use in university. I'd taken a look at the tech available for purchase and simply decided that I'd probably kill myself if I was forced to rely on any of those things for longer than a few seconds. The highest-spec laptop available for sale had a noticeable lag. Spoiled by Kryptonian and 2023 Earth technology, I could not imagine turning that thing into a daily driver.

So, I chose to sacrifice some of my anonymity for comfort. A laptop, made with parts from the fortress’ fabricator, was the best compromise I could make. It was substantially scaled down from what the fortress could produce, so instead of looking like it came from centuries in the future, it instead looked only a decade or two ahead of its time. A slim unibody chassis, paired with a beautiful OLED display and a custom-designed chip, made a laptop I wouldn't kill myself to use. Illogical and likely to draw unnecessary attention to me? Maybe. But what would it matter?

I walked into the parking garage and searched out my car. It was a high-end apartment, so there were more than a few luxury sports cars. Even then, finding mine was easy. The custom paint job mixed with all the subtle tech upgrades I'd given it over the months meant I'd spot it in a crowd of millions. That was without taking super vision into account.

I got in, said hi to the kernel of Kelex that had chosen to serve as the car's onboard AI computer, and set course for the school. This was to be the first official day of the new semester. My first semester at the best school in the world according to most rankings. The streets of Boston seemed sparsely occupied today, so there was more than enough space for me to enjoy the drive. An Audi R8 wasn’t the absolute speediest of vehicles, but with my enhancements, we could go 0-60 in 2.5 seconds if we were really tearing it. That meant that on the streets of Boston, with so many straight lines and paths, we were practically flying down the path.

A/N: Yeah, just a transitory chapter. The unfortunate bit about this is that we're very much in the set-up stage of the story, so we'll get a lot of introspection, exposition, and normy dialogue. Stick around though. Once things kick up a notch, they'll stay there for a very long time.