Marvel: The Sandman Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Breaking Every Record!

For a specific group of individuals, this was probably a dream scenario. 


And even to me, it wasn't normal. 


"Lukas."


It was especially rare to have these people call out your name and take interest. 


"Twenty four and working as a chef at the Cadmum Research Centre." The leader of possibly the first ever hero team muttered, "That's a rather amusing achievement considering the research center was known for not paying much attention to amenities outside the scope of their research."


"I was working at a restaurant, and the director of the then Plutonium Research Committee was impressed by my food, and ended up hiring me as the head chef for the Cadmium Research Center," I said.


And well, it wasn't a lie. I do have some amazing cooking skills.


But my cooking skills weren't the reason I was here. So, I decided to explain the situation.  


"Yesterday night someone broke into the facility and as I went to check the source of the noise, I ended up being pushed towards a reactor by the perpetrator and well… now you know what state I am in."


Johnny frowned hearing this, "Why did you not talk to the researchers and instead ran?"


He was still not too happy with me walking arond free. 


I do not know what this Mole-Man situation was that they went through but it has left him quite anxious.


But well, it is not a problem that I should associate myself with.


"You know how us researchers can act, Johnny."


The voice that drew my attention was soothing and there was no doubt in my mind that she was one of the most beautiful women that this world had to offer.


Of course, I was talking about Susan Storm or as she goes by –The Invisible Woman.


I remember her stories and how she is technically the strongest of all the Fantastic Four members.


As for the man that previously spoke, rocking the gray hair around his temples… It was none other than one of this world's most brilliant minds, Dr. Reed Richards.


And like all the other members of the Fantastic Four, he had a hero identity. Which for him was Mr. Fantastic –A man that could stretch every part of his body to unexplainable limits.


"That body…" The Thing commented, "It is not something that one is born with. And after going through your documents, it seems like you have had this body for a while."


I know what he is trying to say.


"It is a trained body but even with training you need ridiculously great genetics and supplements to achieve such a physique." He said and he wasn't wrong. "I hope you did not abuse any medication."


There were a lot of things that I did not know about this body and I also knew that it wasn't going to be easy to figure out either.


"I haven't," I answered. "I also have reports to prove it, if you need it."


I had done tests to check it myself and I went to quite an expensive center for that. Not so surprisingly though, they found nothing in my blood even after multiple tests.


So this body was natural and/or there was some other factor involved that I did not know about.


Unexplainable factors.


"Do you want me to run some tests?" Reed asked.


It was surprising that he asked and not declared. I mean… I could be considered a threat to them and the society.


But the question was, did I want to be experimented on?


Frankly no. 


However, I was not a villain and the power that I have is something that already existed in this story.


I know quite a bit about it but if Reed can find something to help me learn something new –that would be great.


"Uh, sure? I don't mind."


But why was I agreeing so easily?


It was because of two reasons.


One, I wanted to be on good terms with the Fantastic Four.


And two, I wanted to get rid of my cancer.


I know I have it.


That is just how this power works.


You get something cool, in return you get a major sickness.


"Really?" Reed was taken aback by how easily I agreed.


But I was not letting go of any chance of getting rid of this disease.


"Mhm." I assured, "I am cool with it."


…

…


[A Few Minutes Later]


'This… this is ridiculous..' Reed stared at the screen and then at Susan, who was equally shocked as him.


"This is…" Susan muttered, unable to keep her voice down.


"This is not normal, is it?" She asked, looking at the graph in front of her. "Or is he using his powers?"


Reed removed his glasses, "He isn't."


The reason they were so taken aback was simple.


It was the display of the man lifting a barbell that had them aghast.


"He… is a monster," Ben Grimm said, realizing how ridiculous of a statement it was coming from him.


But how could a man lifting some weights surprise the heroes?


It was simple.


Because no human was capable of lifting half a ton in each hand.


Yes, Lukas was casually swirling nearly five hundred kilos in a single hand.


A feat that was not humanly possible.


"He is definitely using his powers," Ben said, refusing to believe that Lukas was able to show such a feat.


"He… He is not." Reed said, seeing the graph showing no change. "He has not used his powers even once."


The sensors that he had installed allowed him to mark the change in the sand particles and measure the emission of radioactive waves –which often appeared when mutates used their powers.


However, neither of those two were being shown on the graph.


For a second he thought the sensors might be faulty, but it was impossible as they reacted to his own powers.


"Lukas, is this something you have recently acquired or have you always had this strength?" He asked but ended up cursing himself.


'Of course, it is new. No one is born with such strength.'


Oh, how wrong he was.


"I did manage to hit a PR of 550 kilos a week ago."


Every single person in the room looked at Lukas dumbfounded.


"And do you think it is normal?" Susan asked with a face that was almost comical.


"Err… No." Lukas answered honestly, aware that his body held many secrets that even he was unaware of. "But it is something that I had even before this incident."


Lukas was baffled when he first went to the gym with this body. He knew the body was strong but when he started to lift, he noticed that the body was not just strong –it was monstrous.


"Do you mind if we run a few more tests?" Susan asked and was quite amused to see Lukas shrugging.


"Sure, why not?"


Both Reed and Susan were amazed at how easygoing Lukas was. It was as if the man did not care.


And often those men were either foolish or were rightfully confident in their ability.


And something was making the two scientists lean towards the latter.


"Alright then." Reed said, putting his glasses back on. "Do you see the treadmill there?" 


"You want to check my speed or my endurance?"


"Both." Reed answered, "You can start slow and slowly increase the speed."


Surely, a man with so much strength and heavy muscles won't be that fast right?


Wrong again.


As while Lukas did start from one kmph, he slowly increased the speed of the treadmill to ten, then twenty, then thirty –making the two scientists widen their eyes.


But Lukas was no less surprised.


Not because the treadmill went way beyond what a normal treadmill usually ran at but because he had never really tested his maximum speed in this body.


And so, what was his maximum speed?


"Fifty Five… kilometers per hour?" Ben Grimm stared at the scene in horror.


Lukas was just as stunned, as it was only at the mark of fifty five that he felt himself struggling to keep up.


'Even Usain Bolt's record was around twenty five…' Reed mused, looking at the graph.


And once again, it showed no sign of change.


This finally made Susan lose patience.


"Lukas?" She called through the microphone, "Do you think you can grab onto that gripping device?"


She pointed at a metallic device near the doorway.


"It's a grip test device we built specifically for Ben." She explained, "So, a normal human cannot even make it move a millimeter."


This made Lukas curious, "Oh?"


He wanted to see how he compared to one of the heroes whose speciality was raw strength.


And so he decided to test the device without using his sand ability.


He slowly gripped the two handles, before increasing his grip strength around them.


And Susan wasn't lying.


He wasn't even able to make it vibrate.


"This is tough…" He muttered at a barely audible tone, "But let's see…"


Yet he wasn't giving up. And so without wasting a second, he squeezed the two handles with his full strength.


"H-How!"


And this time, it budged.


The handles moved a little, not enough to touch each other but enough to make them tremble.


"That requires at least seven hundred kilos of pressure!" Reed near yelled, seeing that the screen was still the same –without any change in the graph.


"Ugh! I give up!" Lukas gave up and groaned, that's the highest I can go without using the sand.


No one muttered a single word at that. And why would they? Who was even capable to exterting seven hundred kilos of force using one hand?


Definitely not a human.


"Let's give this a try…"


Finally, Lukas decided to use his sand ability, and as such, he increased the amount of sand particles near him arm –gathering enough mass to be able to exert greater strength.


"This…"


Finally.


Finally, Reed was able to see the graph move, assuring him that his creation was working just fine.


However, Ben and Susan had a totally different worry than Reed.


"That's a monster…" Ben growled looking at Lukas nearly making the two handles touch each other –a feat that even he has never managed to do.


"We made it using an alloy we found in space." Susan shared the same sentiment as Ben, "And it has enough density that it is nearly impossible to break or bend."


But there he was, almost effortly putting finger marks around the handles.


"Even you have been able to move it only a few centimeters."


It was already impressive when Lukas managed to move it three millimeters without using his sand powers.


But with the sand? His strength was almost horrifying.


"Ugh!" And with a final push in which he exerted quite a lot of his strength in –he was finally able to do it.


"A monster, I tell you!" Ben walked back as what Lukas had done was not something normal.


"It's… It's not possible…"


What Lukas did was unheard of.


"Err…" Lukas muttered, "I think… I think I broke it?"


He had broken not only the gripping device, but also the graph that Reed was staring at.


As all Reed could see was a big error symbol.

______________________________________________________________________________


[[A/N: How is Susan Storm stronger than someone like the Human Torch?


In Vol 1 #400 of F4, Susan was able to destroy the brain of a celestial by erecting a force field inside its head. So yeah… she is pretty strong and her force fields are ridiculously overpowered.]]