Disclaimer: I own nothing but Nathan. All rights to their original owners, blah, blah, blah...
Warning: Some swearing and violence may appear this chapter.
Chapter 1 - Rebirth: Path to Power (Original)
Nathan heard many whispers in the blackness of the void. Many of them calling out to him, others chastising him for being so weak and powerless. One voice, however, was calling on him for one reason. "Wake up, young one. We have much to discuss." the voice boomed through the inky blackness. Nathan's eyes fluttered open and shut before rapidly blinking. As his eyes got used to the void, it was then that he saw a blue light in the sky above him. Looking up, he reached his hand into the light and was pulled from the void.
The light blinded him for a few moments before it settled down and his eyes readjusted themselves. He found himself in what looked like a copy of his bedroom, but what made it less convincing was that there was nothing outside the window. A woman with long white hair and olive-green eyes stared at him from the seat that was his desk. She wore a white robe with golden threadlines over the edges of the fabric, with her hair in a ponytail. To him, she looked to be in her late 20's to early 30's.
She waved a hand at him with a small smile, before gesturing him to sit on his bed. He complied without a word. "You're probably wondering why you're here, are you not?" she asks softly with a sad tone in he voice. "It was never in my plan for you to lose your life so early. you had so much potential, young Nathan. Despair not, for I have come to give you a second chance if you so wish it." she spoke with tones of sincerity he had never felt before. It confused him, far too much.
"You're... God?" he asks incredulously. She nods with a small, sad smile. He sighs audibly before running a hand through his spiky hair. "Heh. And here I thought If I did die, it would be Morgan Freeman who'd be waiting for me as God..." he chuckles to himself. "This is weird. Beyond peanut butter and bacon sandwich levels of weird." this causes the young woman to giggle, before shaking her head at his nonchalant attitude towards his own death.
"How I appear to you is the form you find most comforting in your heart not your expectations, young padawan." she muses in her reply, straightening out the creases in her robe. Nathan groans to himself, pinching the bridge of his nose at this.
"You seriously pulled a Yoda on me? Please, don't do that." he shoots back with a glare. She nods before hopping off the desk and kneeling in front of Nathan, her hands on his cheeks. His cheeks go a little red at the contact, yet he can't help but smile.
"You will have a second chance. You deserve it. I cannot revive you in the world that you know as your reality, but I can bring you new life, in a new world. In this new world, you will have a new body in which you are not the victim of the cruel Lady Fate. I grant you the power of Memory Aptitude, in which you will be able to use any techniques or abilities you have seen others use in your memory. I know how you loved Manga and comics, so I thought it fitting. Now, you have my blessing." she tells him before kissing him on the forehead, and a bright light envelopes him. He vanishes from the room, and out of that dimension.
"Was it the right thing to do? To grant that human your blessings and give him new life? I thought you stopped the blessings aeons ago." a tall, pale man in a black and white pinstripe suit says from the corner of the room. A lit cigarette hangs from his lips as the smoke wisps in many directions, obscuring his face.
"Lucifer, what I do is my business. He died before his time, and so I gave him a new life. Is that not compensation?" the female god speaks out towards the devil. "I thought it would be fair."
Lucifer allows the smoke to pass, before showing his scarred face and slicked back jet-black hair. "Do as you wish. It's your prerogative," he says with amusement before vanishing in a flash of blue light.
Nathan groggily gets up, his body feeling slightly heavy as he pushes up from the stone floor beneath him. He looks up and forwards, and notices that he's in an alley of some sort. Dusting off his clothes (Clothes from Prologue Chapter), he makes his way down the street and into a cafe/restaurant that looked to have the waitresses dressed up as superheroes. He pushes the door open, walks to the very back, and takes a seat next to the window to take in his surroundings. He recognises this place, but he can't quite remember why. He slumps down in his seat, sighing as he lays his head on the table with his hood up to take a short nap.
His short nap lasted about an hour before he heard a scream from across the room. A slightly overweight man was groping a blonde waitress, who seemed to be telling him off. "This ain't that kinda establishment, Busta! Do that again, and we kick ya out!" she said with a snarl. She turned away to tend to the other tables and took notice of Nathan in the corner. She made a note to go check on him after setting up the orders of her current patrons. Nathan groaned as he stretched out, his bones clicking slightly as they popped from the stiffness. The waitress shuddered slightly at the sounds before she let out a yelp as she was groped from behind again.
Hearing the Yelp, Nathan got up, walked calmly over to the man and grinned under his hood as he glared at the obese man before him. "What? You gonna do something kid? Go on, I dare y-urk!" the man squawked like a parrot as Nathan had his left hand crushing the man's throat. he lifted him before slamming him into a wall.
"You should treat women with respect, asshole," he growled before giving the obese man a mean right hook that sent him out the door, breaking it off its hinges. Nathan moved back to his seat and sat back down, calmly smiling to himself. Everyone in the diner was slightly shaken by the sudden attack but said nothing as they were worried about provoking the young boy. The blonde waitress walked over to Nathan, smiling kindly. She gave him a hug and kissed him on the cheek before bringing an ice pack to him.
"Does your hand hurt, kid? This might help with the swelling if it's hurtin'," she said with a thick Brooklyn accent in her voice. He gently shook his head, before placing a £20 note on the table and walking outside. He leaned against a lamp post, face-palming before walking to a nearby park to sit down and clear his head.
"I should watch my temper..." he said to himself. "That was fucking stupid. I could have been a bit more mature about that." he chastises himself.
"You're tellin' me, kiddo." a feminine voice says from behind, startling him into jumping off the bench he sat down on. Looking back, he saw the waitress he helped in the diner. He smiled and waved his hand for her to sit with him before he sat next to her. "So, kid, ya got a name?" she asks as she takes his hand. She pulls back his hood and sees his young face, his skin slightly pale.
"My name is Nathan, my friends sometimes call me Nate," he tells her with a small smile on his lips. She saw the smile but could see from his eyes that it was not a happy one. She takes off his glasses, folds them and places them in her lap before taking his cheek in her left hand and turning his head to face her as he had been looking away as he spoke to her before.
"Nate... What's wrong? I can tell when people are unhappy." she tells him. Nate gulps slightly before sighing again and holds her hand, feeling the warmth and care that was coming from her. He gives in after a moment of thinking.
"I'm kinda homeless. It's hard to explain," he says to her with a voice filled with sadness. "I'm homeless and alone, and I'm just 14 years old. I have nothing but my clothes and what's in my pockets. I'm a long way from home, with no way back..." he confesses, almost breaking down in tears. She hugs him tightly, comforting as he tells her his story.
"You can stay with me. It's the least I can do for you after you helped me, Nate. My name's Dr Harleen Quinzel, but you can call me Aunty Harley." she says in a soothing voice, hoping it would help him feel more comfortable.
After a few weeks, Nate began to settle in. He got along well with Harley, and sometimes even called her 'Mom', which often left her blushing. What ruined it was the appearance of the man who Harley called 'Mistah J' or 'Joker'. Nate heard about how many times Joker had beaten her, heard about how he saw himself as the 'Clown Prince of Crime'. The man had no empathy for others, and it sickened Nate to no end. When he asked Harley why she didn't just leave, she told him, "Mistah J kills anyone who tries to leave. There's no way out." It was then that Nate saw it. Fear in her eyes. He hugged her tightly, promising her that Joker wouldn't be a problem anymore.
When Joker came for Harley after she called him telling him she quit, it was then that Nate saw it. The green hair. The bleached white skin. That feral grin that seemed almost painted on Joker's face. Like a true clown.
As Joker came through the door demanding answers, Nate came up behind him in ambush. Nate ignited a flare of blue energy around his hand before piercing Joker's chest with it, burning a hole right through the spine and sternum. Joker was dead in seconds. Cleansing his hand of the blood, Nate began planning for the shipping of the body to the GCPD. It was sent to them the next day, and the news stations were all over it like flies on manure.
Nobody else dared to attack Harley after hearing about how Joker died while trying to. When the vigilante called Batman came to her, asking questions, she told him a ninja did it. He was sceptical at first, but when he saw Nate in her living room, he decided she was probably telling the truth. Batman also made a mental note to investigate the boy at some point.
After a few more weeks, Nate's scores in Gotham High were shown to Harley by his teacher. She was actually impressed with the boy she knew was technically dead, but she loved him like a son anyway. Nate told her about his friend Tim in his class, who always glared at him for some reason, but he shook it off.
The biggest event to happen though, was the invasion of the Thanagarians. Aliens who looked like people with bird/angel-like wings on their backs. It was certainly scary when they declared Martial Law. Somehow, even the group known as the Justice League were captured by the 'Bird-people' as Nate called news caused Nate to facepalm. "If you want something done right, do it yourself..." he grumbles to himself as he puts on his black clothing and disappears out the bedroom window, leaving a shocked and worried Harley behind.