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Marvel: King of The Swarm Chapter 4: Master of Life
🕑 Added 2025-05-29 00:57:51 +0000 UTCEven though only a week had passed Harry couldn't imagine a life without the symbiote and he would rather die than exist without her and Harry could tell Nyx felt the exact same way about him.
After avoiding a potential disaster Harry ensured to always leave a buffer when using his bioenergy, a failsafe he was glad to discover before he began to experiment with his powers in earnest. A task Harry tackled head-first during the second month of his rebirth. By that point Harry had learned everything his tutors could teach him, mastering every subject, from the arts, to math, science, and even several languages. Everything Harry attempted he took to like a fish to water learning the equivalent of years' worth of experience and practice in a handful of days. All of his tutors described him as a natural savant, something that Norman couldn't help but celebrate as it helped ease his sense of guilt.
Capitalizing on his father's good mood Harry moved on to his next big request which was his own personal facility and a weekly stipend for materials and investments. Being a billionaire Norman had no problem fulfilling both of Harry's wishes and overnight he had a bank account with several million dollars as a starting fund and became the owner of an old ten thousand square foot warehouse on the banks of the Hudson River.
Harry wasted no time moving, using his newfound wealth to convert the space into his base of operations, a house to live in, and a laboratory for the many experiments Harry had planned. It took the rest of the month to get everything situated, mostly due to Harry's insistence that there was no trail behind the millions of dollars of equipment he moved into the warehouse, which would be the staging house for most of his plans.
The first thing Harry did was compile a database of genetic information, not on a computer but within the Nyx's symbiotic gene pool, which she called the Codex, allowing them to perfectly replicate any DNA sequence they wanted at will, as long as they had the base materials.
While the process might sound complex all Harry had to do was provide Nyx with samples and have her consume them. Within a very short time frame, Harry acquired countless samples in nearly every form imaginable, ranging from live animals, blood samples, and even fossilized remains. Soon the Codex contained thousands of genomes, comprising nearly a trillion base pairs of DNA, all at Harry's disposal and ready for him to use. And that's exactly what Harry did.
While he could have utilized technology and his assimilated expertise on gene editing and mutations, Harry knew that in the long run, they would pale in comparison to what he could accomplish using his bioenergy. So Harry wasted no time familiarizing himself with his abilities.
He started small experimenting on yeast, learning how his bioenergy could interact with other organisms. It was a rather straightforward process, all Harry had to do was establish a physical connection and then inject his bioenergy into the individual fungi. Which was a problem at first seeing as the spores were smaller than grains of rice. But then Nyx stepped in helpful as ever and showed Harry how he could manipulate her slime-like body to form extra appendages and even various tools.
It didn't take long before Harry controlled a swarm of hair-thin symbiotic tendrils, one extended from each of his fingers, that could cherry-pick the yeast spores with ease. Although Harry didn't comment on it, he felt a strange sense of satisfaction that nearly bordered on pleasure from Nyx as he used her powers.
After infusing the spores with his bioenergy Harry felt his control over the fungi solidify and realized that manipulating the organism would be far easier than he initially feared. All Harry needed to do was focus his intent and willpower in order to obtain the results he wanted.
Still pacing himself Harry started with minor mutations such as changing the color and shape of the spores by editing their DNA to produce different proteins. Each change required an expenditure of bioenergy, it was minute but Harry suspected that greater mutations on more complex organisms would increase the costs exponentially.
Something Harry confirmed as his experiments quickly broadened in scope and achievement. After identifying the proverbial bread and butter of his powers Harry moved from yeast to a more complex organism, lab mice.
In his very first experiment with the mice, Harry learned that there were several key differences between using his powers on a simple fungus and a proper animal. The first was that it took far longer to establish a connection with his powers. The mice both consciously resisted by fleeing from Harry's tendrils though they never evaded him for more than a second, and subconsciously resisted Harry's attempts to override their genetic code. While it didn't take more than a minute it was a massive leap from the instantaneous connection Harry had managed with the yeast, promising yet another scaling factor when using his powers.
However, instead of disparaging Harry worked at the problem and eventually figured out that he could brute force his genetic domination by burning bioenergy at a near exhaustive rate. A useful workaround in a pinch, but seeing as he still had limited reserves of energy Harry opted for the former. A doubly necessary option due to the greatly increased cost of inducing mutations in the mice.
Still with nothing but time on his hands Harry made do with the increased difficulty while continuing to hone his skills, slowly branching out and testing new waters, all revealing new aspects of his powers that Harry would have never discovered otherwise.
Harry learned that he could use raw bioenergy to stimulate certain physiological changes such as growing new limbs and organs. However, the process was much more complex compared to genetic editing. Harry couldn't just will the mice to have a second heart, he had to actually understand the form and function of the organ, along with the entire cardiovascular system to make veins and arteries for the blood to flow through.
So Harry dedicated a good week to studying veterinary science as well as all the subjects one would need to obtain an MD to fully grasp the endless intricacies of the body. After that Harry proceeded as planned, now able to create functioning organs and limbs with ease.
However, even more promising was Harry's second major discovery, that after completing the physiological changes he could make an engram of the modified creature. Which allowed him to create a new genome that would code for all of the changes Harry made with his bioenergy.
Initially, Harry was confused about how the genome could be of any service seeing as there wasn't any new genetic information being added to the Codex. But then after some experimentation, Harry realized that editing the engram back into the organism he had originally modified hardly cost any bioenergy at all. This led Harry to his third major discovery, it seemed that every genetic trait that came from his Codex was hyper-dominate meaning that if passed down through reproduction it would always be present in the offspring
Meaning that theoretically, all Harry had to do, to create a new species was modify one individual to his liking create an engram of its DNA, inject it into the modified individual, and have it reproduce with a compatible partner to pass on all of its modified traits into fertile offspring who could repeat the cycle infinitely without Harry having to invest a single iota of bioenergy.
Putting his theory to the test Harry modified a male mouse to have two tails, three stomach chambers, scales instead of fur, and a faster gestation time before injecting it with the engram and breeding it with a regular female mouse. A week later the female mouse had six pups each with the same genome as their father. However they weren't clones, each had some level of genetic variation for traits not specifically coded by the engram which was a positive as limited genetic diversity was never a good thing.
After mastering the basics of his powers Harry realized why Nyx had been so eager to bond with him. He had direct power and control over life itself, a power that only gods should possess. It was a prideful and arrogant comparison, but with each discovery, Harry felt himself shuffling towards the inevitable conclusion, one where he would become a god or at least the closest equivalent. Similarly, Harry's ego and desires grew to match his lofty goals, which seemed to strengthen the bond between him and Nyx.
When he brought it up the symbiote hid nothing and explained in great detail which only served to strengthen Harry's already unshakable trust.
'Since I am cut off from my species' hive mind I have to rely on my host to utilize my telepathic abilities. As you know this creates a link between us allowing you to use my powerful physiology while granting me access to your emotions, desires, and genetic information. Most symbiotes are unfeeling and mindless creatures as they rarely bond with other organisms and even fewer have the chance of bonding with a sentient species. However, I have bonded with a multitude over hundreds of thousands of years, which allowed me to slowly build my own personality with my own wants and desires. This however was a double edge sword as I needed to find hosts with similar psyches to mine. Even among the endless stars I only encountered a handful of individuals that were compatible with me and none came even close to what I found in you Harry. The moment I brushed your mind, I knew that I would never find a more compatible host. So I restored your body and entrusted you to fulfill my dream and every step you take towards our shared goals the more compatible we become meaning the deeper our bond which strengthens the both of us…because we…are…one.'
