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The Place I̶͕͎̫̒̋n̵͎͕̤̋̒-̶̥͚̦̄̌̂B̵̤̮̑́̕e̶̟̓̉t̴̡̞̬̂̉͊w̴̰̣̲̿̏̆e̴͓͖͂e̶̛̯͛͠n̸͙͑
–Jack Sullivan–
“So, I am dead?” He found himself numb at the information that he was dead, that too by a heart attack in his sleep. It was not exactly surprising considering the hours he put into work and the amount of red meat and processed cheese he put into his body. Still, he was barely 30 years old and he was being told that he had died in his sleep and was found by his neighbours almost a week later in a decomposed state. Man, that sucked. At least, he died painlessly so that’s good.
“Yes, you are dead. Now let’s get on with the process,” His gaze snapped to the shapeless massive blob of light that hurt to look at the more he tried to discern its features. He didn’t even know how he looked or whatnot because, in his current form, he was literally invisible to his own senses. The only thing he could “see” was the massive white light in front of him that apparently spoke on its own. The light was also impatient because it was telling him, someone who had just been informed of his own death, to “get on” with something.
He raised his finger or at least, the command to do so left his thought centre, he didn’t know if he actually did or not but before he could give the white light a piece of his mind, his words were bulldozed over as the light continued, “You are now dead. You have an above-average karmic record for someone who was nothing but a pencil pusher. I guess amidst the sea of fake charities that you ended up donating to, somewhere along the way, your money must have reached an authentic one. Congrats by the way for that, it is harder for that to happen than you think,”
The voice continued to yap on about karmic scales and reincarnation packages in other universes. His mind was stuck on the fact that the literal millions he had donated in his long career had mostly been wasted. Before he could dwell on that fact too much, he “looked” at the white light in shock and then ducked his gaze away as it tried to hurt. He tried to voice out his curiosities but the white light somehow snapped a finger, at least that’s what it sounded like to him and the next thing he knew, the white light was gone and it was replaced with a giant wheel of fortune.
No, he was never blessed at luck-based games. That was why he was a quant. Someone who used math and solid logic, along with a hint of mind fuckery, to do his job, i.e, help rich assholes become even richer. He knew from experience that leaving it to fate in his case never led to good outcomes and yet, he could not voice any protests because he was being pushed to the giant wheel from behind. He didn’t know what overcame him at the moment, but without any conscious thought on his part, he raised his arm and placed it on the knob at the edge of the wheel and just rotated it with all his might. The wheel began to give out stereotypical Wheel of fortune noises as it continued to spin at a dizzying speed. Slowly, the words on the wheel became visible to him and his eyes continued to widen, if he had eyes that is, as he read the choices that were available to him.
There were literally all tiers of choices in that wheel, ranging from “become the dog of nobility in the medieval ages” to being reborn as “Yawheh in Dxd”. Some were extremely lucrative, promising immediate OPness and untold amounts of luxury at the very beginning and some promised the life of a literal animal, that too in the age where modern medicine was not available even for humans, let alone their pets.
Slowly, almost painfully, the wheel came to a halt and then pointed at the choice that read - “Transmigrate into the body of a loyal HYDRA soldier during an experimental procedure in the MCU”.
That, that was something he could work with. Oh, who was he kidding, he was going to be born as a literal Nazi and not during their heyday either. He would be lucky to be alive and imprisoned rather than becoming meat paste under the assault of the Hulk or Thor or worse, tortured for information because he was going to become someone who was loyal to HYDRA so it stands to reason that he might know critical information.
Before he could delve fully into the emerging panic attack, the white light spoke once again,
“Okay, as far as options go, that is not unsalvageable,” The voice said with a tinge of sympathy for him.
“Now, let’s get to the next segment where I am sure your strengths will shine through,”
“Yeah yeah, let’s get this over with,” He said numbly.
“Hey, cheer up. This is something that is already in your favour because of your karmic record. Let’s get you some options, shall we? Now, what can we get you that will help you survive? Ah, yes, there you go. Just take a look at these options and tell me if you want any changes in them,”
He didn’t have eyes, legs, or any limb to speak of and yet, he could see the page that had been handed to him by the light. His previous dead eyes gained a hint of interest in them once he read through the options he was given. There were not a lot of them and even in them, some of them clearly did not tempt him. Like the one that said, “Turn into living energy from the experiment and live in fragmented consciousness until your body reforms slowly”. No, sir. He was not going to give up his most important possessions, even if it did gain him more than enough power.
The one that made the most sense to him was, “Gain the powers of barrier generation and manipulation along with a wild entry.” Apparently, the catch was that the experiment succeeded but also released enough energy to vaporise everyone within close distance, making sure that he would not have to fight through a horde of HYDRA agents the moment he is transported into an unknown universe. Okay, calling the MCU unknown might be a bit of a stretch since he was a huge fan but it was not as if he knew every single thing about that universe, just the major events, and that too might never happen if he was going to be involved in them. Butterfly effect and all that stuff. He would also not be hunted down by HYDRA on account of most of them not knowing about him at all. Apparently, he was a personal project of one of the heads of HYDRA, Daniel Whitehall and his death would also mean that any information that Daniel might have had regarding him would be erased from the world, especially since the body he was going to inhabit did not have any official record anyway. It might get hard to assimilate himself back into society but that was for later. Right now, he has made his choice.
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“I choose this option,” He was not sure how to tell the gigantic white light about the tiny words that were printed on the paper but apparently, the light understood it all the same.
“Oh, a nice option. One that demands immense pain at the very beginning but has very nice dividends later on. I approve. Anyway, let's not wait any longer, I have a lot more souls to deal with. Goodbye and good luck, Jack Sullivan, you are going to need it. As a favour, I have made sure the name stays the same for both of your lives. Enjoy!”
Those were the last words he heard before his vision turned black and he was whisked away to his destination, the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
__________xx____________
Joint Experimental Facility, Canada
He didn’t know how long it had been since that moment but he did know that it was starting to get uncomfortable to be with himself for so long that his thoughts started to wander. Thankfully, before he could go insane with his own company, he saw light at the end of the tunnel as he was promptly dropped into something that felt like hot lava with how painful it was. Great, now instead of him going insane by his own thoughts, he would go insane with the pain he was being subjected to at the moment.
Those were the last bits of coherent thoughts his brain could muster up before his entire being lit up with the agonising pain of lava coursing through his very veins. He must have screamed himself hoarse because he could not hear his voice. All he could see was a sea of green, so much green, before there was a huge shockwave that knocked him unconscious.
The next moment he opened his eyes, he found his voice was back because he was screaming for a totally different reason now. All he could do was scream as the gravelly ground was approaching at an alarming speed and all he could think was ‘IamgoingtoDieIamgoingtoDieIamgoingtoDIE!’ but thankfully, before he could become paste on the ground, something happened as green filled his vision as he stopped just a second before he hit the ground.
“Whoa,” His low exclamation echoed around him as he floated just one foot above the ground. As he craned his neck to look in one direction, his body seemed to follow his vision as his entire body turned to look in the same direction.
“Aha, this is awesome,” He shouted jubilantly but then immediately winced in pain as the injuries that he must have sustained during that explosion caught up to him. ‘The adrenaline must be wearing down’ he thought to himself as the green tint that had filled his vision receded and he promptly dropped himself to the ground. Ground that was both hard and extremely cold. He then also noticed that most of his clothing had been torn apart from the very explosion that must have catapulted him into the sky. To begin with, he must have been scarcely clothed because of the experiment and the ensuing impromptu journey through the atmosphere did his meagre clothing no favours.
Shivering, he tried to rub his arms together to generate some form of heat before remembering his condition. He hurriedly checked his person for some sort of note that could explain his current situation other than him being declared dead in the official HYDRA files and being free from chase that would have no doubt ensued had they thought he was still alive and in possession of powers from their experiments.
Speaking of powers, he looked at his arms and clenched them as he tried to take a feel for something. Something that was different from his previous situation. The green glow from before had stopped his halt. Maybe he had flight then, as his power?
No, that would not explain his mostly unscathed state from the explosion that had thrown him high up in the sky. He was also not feeling as cold as he should. From the looks of it, he should be getting frostbite from the biting cold but he was just feeling a little cold. Not snow forest cold but the AC being a little chilly for his tastes cold. It was uncomfortable but not unbearable. Maybe it had something to do with the experimentation.
As his thoughts began jumbling, he took a deep breath and sat cross-legged on the ground and started taking deep breaths, something that had helped him tide through a panic attack countless times throughout his too-long for his taste career. As he began concentrating on his breathing, the part of his mind that was panicking and focusing on the onslaught of new information that had since been presented to him, began to quiet down. At the same time, he sensed something else in his mind. Something that was hot. He didn’t know quite how to explain it but he could feel something in his mind that was not there before.
He had read about advanced mind palace techniques before but he always thought it was just some figment of the imagination of some ridiculously academic shrink who wrote it down in some book which then became a bestseller.
He had never expected to actually feel his mind space as was written in some of those self-help books. He could feel his mind but not in very good clarity but somehow that hot part could be felt very easily. Tentatively, he tried opening his eyes, only to find himself stuck in the same place. To his growing panic, he was attracted to that hot thing and soon found himself standing in front of a small glowing green moon that was as small as a golf ball. He didn’t know what overtook him but his hands strayed towards the green ball and even though it was getting hotter, his hands didn't stop until the ball was firmly held in his grip. The moment his fingers closed around the ball, rays of green light began escaping his fist. Before he could do much in panic, his eyes opened and with a gasp, he found himself sitting in a huge dome made up of green energy.
He looked at the hand that was previously holding on to that green ball, only to find his entire body covered in that same green energy.
‘So this is my power,’ He thought with satisfaction, unaware of the gaze of the Watcher of Asgard that had been following him since he awoke in this universe.
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Word Count - 2339
If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head to my P*treon. It is the same name as my username.