Chapter 116: Three days later.

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Everyone was awake. Sally had insisted on cooking. The contents of Shaniqua’s pantry, the walk in freezer and the refrigerator had NOT even been dented by Shaniqua and I as yet. There was still enough food stocked up to feed a small army for a month. We were all sitting outside near the pool watching the sun come up.

“Roy is too proud to ask” Sally said " He’s dying to know if he will become as strong as you are. How strong are you anyway?”

“His strength is the strength of ten because I haven’t got him into the sack yet.” Shaniqua misquoted. She looked at the kids and winked. They giggled. No prudes they. They knew all about sex and when it was and was not appropriate. Good kids.

“Actually that would be ten GORILLA’s I’m stronger than ten gorillas. " I told them.”Wikipedia says that a Gorilla is six to fifteen times stronger than a man. I might be stronger than that. Do the math.”

I looked at Roy.” Sorry. Theres’ only so much that can be done without rebuilding your skeleton, your muscles, your tendons, redoing your respiration system and replacing it all with a synthetics. ’’

Then I seemingly changed the subject.” If I recall your favorite material is Carbon.?”

Roy is was much smarter than me. They all are, even the kids. What I had to have explained to me in great detail they all picked up with only a hint. It would depress me if I let it. I didn’t.” Your skeleton is diamond composite?”

I laid my hand on the table for emphasis. My hand looked like I had s SERIOUS case of rheumatoid arthritis. My knuckles were very large. "Notice how my hands look? I know that you all have been avoiding the subject but it’s ok. I’m not injured or in pain. My whole skeleton has been redesigned and refined. The reason my hands looks the way they do is that the tendon attachment points have been moved for more leverage. My whole skeleton, the muscles, the tendons, the nervous system. have been rebuilt or replaced.. It took months of mind numbing screaming agony to accomplish. I guess that you could think of me as a cyborg. "

“So, to answer your question. Yup. My skeleton is much like the arch. Diamond for the squeezie parts, graphene nanotubes for the pully parts just like the thing your daddy built. " The children giggled.

“Tell him more about the pain you went through to get it.” Shaniqua said.

“I can’t” I told him. "it’s literally indescribable. How old are you anyway?”

He thought that I was changing the subject again but answered anyway.” Almost 35.”

I’m quit a bit more that twice your age, and I was damn near too young. The process requires a certain amount of a particular enzyme residue that can only be acquired with age or mind numbing trauma.. Anyone younger than a hundred is risky. For anyone younger than seventy it’s fatal ninety nine percent of the time. Bad odds. I’m sorry son...you’re only going to be five times stronger than you were until you take the full treatment...perhaps sixty years from now. "

“Gee...only five times stronger” Roy said.

"and more endurance" Shaniqua added.

Roy grinned.

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