'… You forget to mention I'd be blacking out at random times... what the hell happened back there? Wait a second... am I asleep again?'

“You think creating matter out of nothing comes without a cost? Each time you use the SU it converts your own flesh and blood into more material. It doesn't matter that much since you can heal infinitely and the SU kills your nerves so you don't even notice it happening. But after a while your mind and body can't take the harassment so it shuts down as a self-preservation mechanism.”

'Oh... okay? So how do I know if I'm about to collapse? I could have gotten stomped by five of those guys... Mosers... if I'd dropped there.'

“Well I haven't actually collapsed in years. This only happened because you didn't give your body any time to rest. You restrained a Moser, teleported, restrained more Mosers and then teleported again with barely any time to rest in-between. If you were smart you'd have realized you could have just tripped their legs or something instead of turning them into Christmas presents.”

'Crap... you could have told me about that.'

“Now you know. So I guess every time you have to sleep or fall unconscious we'll be meeting up here instead of dreaming. So it's time to start telling you how to use the god damn SU while we have time.”

'… I'm listening.'

Before he'd even woken up Ben had realized that his dream sessions were going to be a chore. It made sense, he couldn't very well be a hero by running around town like a headless chicken without any idea of what he was doing. But that didn't make it suck any less. He spent the entire night listening to Shroud tell him how much he sucked at using the Shroud Uniform, why he sucked and why he would still suck at using it even after the session was over. But he did learn a lot. For one thing he could see perfectly in the dark. He hadn't even realized that not only did the stone room not have a light, but that it had also been night time when he had fought against the Mosers alongside mustached man. Shroud also constantly drilled into him that he was an idiot for 'spraying and praying' against the Mosers when he should have been telling the Shroud Uniform to shoot at the enemies arms and legs to stop them from moving. Apparently what it shot out was actually the same material is was made of, it was just multi-purpose for reasons that were apparently too complicated for a feeble mind like Ben's to know. But the bare basics of it was that the Shroud Uniform was made from, and shooting out, the closest thing anyone in the world could get to physical darkness. It was hard to break and it could alternate between being something physical and something incorporeal.

Ben breathed a sigh of relief when he finally felt himself waking up from his long slumber. If sleep came again then he hoped it wouldn't be too soon.

“Rise and shine tiny balls. It's a never ending party for a hero and you still have to eat.”

Ben groaned as he felt Shroud mentally tapping him on the head, 'Just... you're not even trying with the insults any more. Honestly I feel like hugging this stone slab and never letting go. Besides you have a constantly regenerating body, why would you even need to eat.'

“If you don't eat you die. That's just common sense. Don't ask me why. I'm not god.”

Ben could feel his hands digging into the stone slab underneath him. It wasn't that uncomfortable but apparently that was only because the Shroud Uniform was contorting around his body and acting as a mattress. He didn't need to sleep but he could feel the mental exhaustion seeping into his mind. He didn't feel like waking up into a world that wasn't his own.

“I said rise and shine.”

Ben grunted as his brain jolted in pain. He sat up wincing and glared at Shroud, who had appeared next to him and was tapping at his head, “No need to be such an ass about it.”

“Well why don't you stop being such a little bitch. I bit of pain is a good thing. If you've experienced pain then it wont come as such a big shock when your arm is inevitably ripped off in a fight. That pain wont just go away on its own. Trust me.”

Ben slowly lifted himself off of the stone slab and remembered the mustached man getting brain blasted by a rock, 'As horrible as that sounds after last night I think you might be right.'

“Damn right I am. Two things you can't hold back in this world are pain and exhaustion Ben. You either take it slowly and grow used to it or stall long enough for it to hit you like a bus when it finally arrives. Feeling this pain now will only make you stronger.”

'I think I just got a very dark glimpse into your life that I'm going to completely ignore. You have your dream lecture and pain taps to thank for that.'

“One day you're going to be grateful for all this crap I'm giving you Ben. We aren't going to be sharing a body forever and when that time comes you're going to have to thank me for it. I hope I don't have to keep reminding you that I could probably make you go insane with a touch.”

Ben sighed and opened the door into the hallway, 'I got that part. Clearly.'

“You're more of an ass than usual in the morning.”

Ben blinked as he walked through the hallway and grunted as he contemplated, 'Fine, fine. Sorry. I guess you're just as stuck as I am on the whole thing. You don't even have a body any more. I guess I am being a bit selfish.'

There was a small pause, then, “Yeah. It's fine. Kitchens to your left by the way.”

Ben strode through another door and stopped, 'This is surprisingly normal.'

The kitchen had everything your standard kitchen needed, including a clean sink and stove. Ben washed a pan and opened the fridge. He took out and cooked some eggs that he hoped hadn't been in the fridge as long as some of the other food looked like it had. Eating at a stone table was probably the most normal it was going to get around here, and it was nice in a weird and simple sort of way. Nobody telling him he was in another world. Nobody proving that by trying to kill him. A little space where none of that complicated stuff entered because it just seemed like such a normal event. Such a familiar action.

“You look like an eighty year old retiree that's about to kill himself.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Ben rolled his eyes and ignored Shroud. If he thought about it from a very generous angle his other self wasn't actually angry at him, he was just angry at life in general. And he was right about what he'd said before. Shroud had been kicked out of his own body by someone who had the life he never did, and the parents he'd never had. That must suck. But Ben also didn't doubt that Shroud had killed people before. And he couldn't trust Shroud enough to take it for granted that all those people had deserved it.

Who was he to be judge, jury and executioner?

Ben looked up at the roof and frowned. Even the kitchen didn't have any lights. It wasn't like he needed it. But he could spot a problem that he though about straight away. Shroud certainly hadn't thought about it, but the reason he looked like a shriveled up grape was probably because he'd been living in this house without light for years. It was bad enough that he was permanently attached to clothing that was a physical manifestation of darkness. The entire house gave off a feeling of being unapproachable. Stone walls, stone furniture and dust everywhere. Not to mention Shroud had clearly stated it was underground with probably no entrances or exits except for his teleportation power.

'Come to think of it...'

“What?”

'Do you have any friends?'

Shroud looked puzzled for a second, his transparent figure appeared hanging around the edge of the table and he began cracking his transparent knuckles, “Don't need them. Not in my line of work.”

'Then... allies? Arch enemy? Anybody at all that you can talk to or anything?'

“Why the sudden questions Ben? My life is my life. I told you not to pry into it.”

'Because this house feels so lonely that I'd probably kill myself in it if I had to live in it. If I hadn't gotten here yesterday and had somewhere else to go I would have tried to burn this place to the ground and never looked back.'

Shroud didn't react to the remark and it was impossible for Ben to tell what he was thinking. He didn't feel any of the painful vibes coming from his head that seemed to accompany Shroud when he was annoyed. A sad lesson he’d learned in a single nights rest. In a strange sort of way it was nice to have his company, and he was sure that Shroud felt the same way. Even if he didn't want to admit it. Sure, Shroud was a bit of an ass, but he hadn't killed Ben despite all the threats he'd made. And he'd at least fully cooperated with whatever Ben said when he had more than good reason to just stay silent. But that didn't make this place any less of a lonely dump that's be better suited as a murder investigation site or part of an underground mole kingdom. Ben wanted to ask how he'd even come to live in this place but he refrained from asking about it. The place looked exactly like his own house, without all the furniture and memorabilia. So it was more than likely that he would just trigger Shroud's anger by bringing up bad memories.

“This house has some good memories for me.”

Ben waited patiently but the silence drew out longer and he gave up finishing the conversation. The plate had transformed from full to empty and Ben felt more content than he'd ever been since arriving at this place, this world. Mental unrest and the brutal way several Mosers had tried to kill him aside the situation still seemed pretty serious. It was starting to lean on Ben's mind. Even if Shroud's theory about a reality warper was correct that didn't explain why he remembered his previous life. And if he was just a parallel counterpart that had probably died and gotten stuck to Shroud, then why did it happen to him. He wasn't anyone special, nobody in his world had been anyone special. Not in the super powered sense of the word at least.

'There's something I want to know,' Ben went to the sink and started to clean the dishes while thinking carefully about how he was going to bring up the next topic.

“Yeah?”

'You said our parents were aliens in this world. What kind of aliens were they?'

Shroud cocked a transparent eyebrow, “Well its about fucking time.”

'Yeah well...' Ben cocked his head to the side in confusion, Shroud's attitude change startled him, 'In my memories our parents were just ordinary people, definitely no teleporting, definitely no invincible healing powers. My dad cut his finger on a paper edge once and cried like a little b-baby,' Ben coughed as the word caught on his throat. Remembering his parents brought on feelings that he wasn't sure he wanted to deal with, he could feel tears welling up at the corner of his eyes but Shroud's penetrating gaze reminded him why he'd brought it up, 'But there's a lot of weird stuff happening in this world, compared to mine at least, and I need to be prepared for it. So, uh, I'm not really digging for information about your past but, there are a bunch of reasons why I should know about our parents and what that means for me.'

“Aliens. Right.” Shroud looked troubled for a second then continued, “All you need to know is that there were several wars involving aliens, so they're not the most trusted beings on the planet. Yeah, it's a racist remark since there are actually different types of aliens around but honestly all of them have caused trouble at one time or another. The Human-Moser conflict, the Alaskan-Sipa war, the Shroud-Moser and the Shroud-Zarath war are the major ones.”

Ben tugged at the Shroud Uniform, 'Which ones were our parents? Shroud?'

“They sure as hell weren't Mosers.”

Ben shuddered, he definitely wouldn't want to be a Moser.

'Wait so, just to clear things up. We have night vision, can heal from any injury and we use darkness to fight against our enemies. Aren't we just vampires? Space vampires? Hell, you live underground in stone. This is a deluxe house sized coffin.'

Shook his head, “God no. Vampires are completely different from us. The Shroud can live in sunlight for one thing, and we don't suck the blood out of living things and make them our servants. Besides, unfortunately, our circumstances aren't as good. We're not on the protected species list for one.” Shroud sat down on the table as he spoke, “Not every member of the Shroud has a Shroud Uniform, in fact, those are pretty rare. Definitely not something your average Shroud immigrant family living on earth would have. During one of the conflicts, a civil war, on the Shroud homeworld the leader of the Shroud went bat-shit crazy and decided to send assassins to kill all off-world Shroud, fearing that they'd come home and help the revolutionaries. Needless to say he was killed off before I ever found out about him. But that didn't stop the assassin he'd sent from killing our parents, or me killing him. It… exposed a lot more about our parents history than I’d have liked to have known. But in the end I received the uniform.”

'Oh... Sorry.'

“Casualties of war Ben, even if you're not involved it'll sweep you up and make you involved. There'll never be any love between me and the Shroud but at least they left me alone after that. I don't even think they know I'm alive any more. But if you happen to see one just ignore them, not everyone off-world agrees with the new leadership, and others might even support the old one. Those guys we just call idiots and walk away from them nice and slowly.”

'Then... if the Shroud and the Mosers had a war with each other, wont they side against us now that I used a Shroud Weapon against them? I've never known but about war but being in the opposing army doesn't seem like the best way to make them forget about us. Even if we were trying to protect people from the Mosers, maybe they'll take it as a personal vendetta instead of considering us heroic.'

Shroud shrugged, “They had a war a couple of hundred years ago Ben, most Mosers live a decade at most and they're all clones. None of them left alive even care about the Shroud, let alone hate them. Besides we're part of a big, wide universe. Chances are those Mosers are cloned mercenaries created somewhere on Earth. They cost a ton to make but they're not exactly rare, nor are they exclusively an alien race any more. Just hired muscle when you need brawn over brains. Also you didn't kill them, a true enemy stopping them for personal reasons would have killed them.”

Ben strode into the hallway and back into the stone room. There wasn't much of a reason to change locations in such a bland house but it seemed appropriate to exit the kitchen after eating.

'So... there are probably more of those Mosers out there? Are we going to try and stop them? Without collapsing this time. Or would that make things worse.'

Shroud appeared in the room and nodded, “You're trying to be a hero now Ben. Of course we're going to stop those Mosers, and whoever hired them. But first we're going to need to go on a little hunt.”

'What are we hunting?'

Shroud grinned, “Heroes.”