I glared at the monitor with my essay on it mere inches away from my face, trying to make it glitch, malfunction, blow up in a pile of smithereens or something! Christ was I exhausted!

It should be easier than regular school, she said! You don't even have to leave the house, she said! I haven't even left the house for more than a few hours, in over a year woman, I thought to myself.

I could barely remember the previous year's algebra class, and I was only passing this year due to a dubious usage of the internet. Before this I used to be a straight A student, quite quick on the uptake if I say so myself, but being in lockdown for over a year tanked any semblance of my already waning motivation and caused it to be blown up in a show of epic proportions. Talk about from hero to zero, almost literally zero according to my grades.

You know what? Screw this, I thought. I shut down my computer, and walked a few steps back towards my bed. Remembering I left my phone on one of those wireless charging things I was recently given, I snagged it and almost immediately it entered the homescreen. I positioned myself comfortably leaning back on a pillow. Fully charged, nice! Now, what to read… what to read... I contemplated for a moment. You know what? No fanfics I should read … I snapped my fingers in rapid succession in annoyance as I tried to remember the name of the book I just recently bought.

A few seconds later the name of the book I was trying to remember appeared on the tip of my tongue. Dawnbreaker, I remembered. It was a book that focused on the exploits of a seventeen year old Clark Kent who was yet to take on the mantle of Superman. Really it seemed to be perfectly in my tastes. I idolize Superman and what he symbolizes. He shows us that even those with absolute power can still be good people, that everyone should hope and work for a better world, and that almost everyone has a shred of good in them.

Really even just now is as good a time as any to give it a read. Well if I ignore my essay… and the other mountains of work I'm supposed to do, as well as the extra studying I have to do for my upcoming finals, but who cares about those?

I gave a click to the orange, and white "Books" icon on the lower half section of my phone, and went on to find the book I was looking for. I gave a tap to the cover of "Dawnbreaker" and-

What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck, my mind rattled as I got a grip of my surroundings. From a quick cursory glance it was just some decrepit restroom stall, and I was sitting on the lid of a toilet.

Nothing shifted, there was no transitionary period, I didn't blackout and wakeup, not even a flash of light! There was nothing. The closest thing I could describe it to was when a scene changed in VR. There was something, then an instant later there was something else. Nothing dramatic, just change from my comfortable bed, to this place. Speaking of which in order of importance: Where am I? Am I on some sort of drug? and I really think this is the most important question: Did I lose my goddamn mind! My mind raced in a million different directions, and my breathing started to speed up slightly.

Okay, calm down calm down calm down calm down clam down,

.

-̢̡̭̜͒͌̅̊̒̃̅̚͟͜͡͞-̴̛̯͔͍͕̱͕̓̈́̆̅̈̒͋̀ͅ-̖͕͖̭͈͕̏̀͐̊̃̔͢͠-̟͕̻̬̯̲̦̏͗́̅̀̔ͅ-̴̬̝̥̪̳͕̱̻̀̌̈̎̍̿͒̉͢͠͠-̳̟͇̯͉͗̓́̇̂̔̈̾̇͢-̱͎̲̲̭̫̭̳̆͑̉̄̅̀͊͊̿̕-̶̨̨̣̖͇͂̔̂̾͝-̶̞̰͔̰͉̮́̀͛͑̄̅̀̌͘

...Dear Jesus why can't I remember my name? what in the ever living fuck just happened. My mind was still racing, and I couldn't see clearly.

A few moments? Minutes? I can't recall. Anyway some indeterminate amount of time later I finally found my breathing to have stabilized, but tears were still in my eyes and I wiped them away. In and out, in and out, in and out, I called to myself mentally. Focus on keeping my breath steady. I really have no idea what to do in this situation, and I can't remember my name. Okay I gotta do something. I can't just keep sitting here.

Call the police! I still had my phone on me, and it was fully charged! I quickly dialed 911, and almost immediately the call died. I gave a look to the upper right corner of my phone, and noticed there was absolutely no cell service, which was fucking weird because my phone plan covered most if not all of the continental United States.

Angry, I was about to throw my phone against the stall wall, and extended my hand to do so, until I noticed something fucking strange on my left wrist. It was at this moment I legitimately questioned my sanity, because on my left wrist I swear to god, was the mother fucking Omnitrix.

Alright I'm in a decrepit bathroom, I can't remember my name, and I have the Omnitrix on my left wrist. None of these facts lead me to believe that I am in fact sane. Except insane people can't question their sanity can they? My thoughts for the umpteenth time today raced. Alright there are three possibilities I can think of A. This is real B. I'm in some sort of dream or C. I'm hallucinating. If it's B or C then nothing matters, and either I'll wake up, or probably be found and put in some asylum until I'm lucid, if it's A then I'm majorly fucked over.

Alright enough thinking. I've thought enough. I should treat it like it's A until proven otherwise. Taking a deep breath I pulled my wrist adjacent to me. I hesitantly pressed its center, and immediately jolted my hand back. It morphed from the green, black, and white design that was reminiscent of the Omniverse design, to a different color pallet consisting of red, blue, and yellow. The screen in the center was emitting a blue light. Did… did it just rip off Superman's color scheme? I questioned. Did it respond to my subconscious? I mean Ben had a green color scheme even when the Ultimatrix was originally red when he took it from Albedo. So maybe because I love Superman it chose his color scheme as the Omnitrix colors?

"Omnitrix successfully recalibrated for User. 10 aliens now available for use." a synthetic voice called out.

The voice spooked me back a bit, before I regained my seating on the toilet. I focused back on the watch and tapped it again. A yellow hologram popped out (which woah! A fucking hologram!) and it formed into a humanoid shaped figure with an excess amount of arms. I could give a guess as to who it was. I swiped at the hologram looking for something useful. I mean they were all awesome! But at this moment in time I could guess I'd probably need something with mobility.

I passed two separate beings made of crystal, a small frog-like creature, and a creature with earmuffs, before I found something useful. XLR8 seemed to be one of the aliens unlocked in the watch on my wrist.

Slowly I moved myself from the seat, and opened the stall door. Quickly taking a peak, and seeing nothing beside from an empty men's restroom I walked out as quickly as I could. I opened the door from the inside of the mens restroom and slowly, and cautiously exited. What I found much to my surprise was a simple fast food restaurant. I could feel the eyes of a few people as I was walking through the place. The menu helped me out a lot, because I knew exactly where I was now. Big Belly Burger in large bold letters covered part of the menu on the wall.

Big Belly Burger, which if I recall correctly is in fact a fast food chain in the DC universe.

I'm fucked, the single thought reverberated through my mind. DC was a capital D death world! Sure it may not seem like it in the comics, but that's because of the sliding time scale. Batman is still in his thirties and he's had at least 4 robins. They never focus on the fridge horror aspects of the comics, like how the world almost ends on a regular basis. I idolize Superman, but I don't want to inhabit the same reality as he does.

Okay let's first find out just which reality I'm in. For all I know Superman is a communist, and this single Big Belly Burger is America's last stand against him. I'm guessing my thoughts must have been showing on my face, because as I turned around and scanned for an exit, people were staring at me. I ignored the burning sensation enveloping my face, and headed for the exit. The faster I was out of there, the less people would stare.

When I exited out the building, I came face to face with a worn down street, and towering buildings dotting the dusk skyline. I needed somewhere to hide, maybe even transform if the watch wasn't just a figment of my imagination. Keeping a steady pace I searched for an empty alleyway or something along those lines. I saw a few people around me, and the place I currently was seemed really sketchy, I didn't want to be the poor bastard that got mugged by one of them.

After walking for a few minutes, I finally arrived at a place that seemed free of other people. I fiddled with the Omnitrix again, and found myself staring at a yellow hologram of XLR8. I took in a deep breath, before slamming my palm against the watch.

Change.

My body, it changed. The feeling that filled me was indescribable, like my body was being stretched out, and molded. A warmth echoed throughout my body, almost like electricity. Again, it was indescribable, I can't do the feeling justice. The feeling was over in an instant however, and I instantly found my perspective had shifted. I was slightly taller, from my normal 6'0 height, and my body again was different. I had tail (which let me tell you is fucking weird) my feet weren't feet, but orbs, and I had three fingers? Claws? Well I had three of those. Also I was now blue and black, so there's something.

I tried to move forward a bit, and got launched into the alleyway wall. I'm sad to say this is the most painful thing I've ever experienced, before this the most amount of pain I've been in was occasionally slamming my foot into things, not colliding with bricks at whatever speed I went. After I groaned in pain for a few moments I peeled myself off the ground, and tried going slower.

Slower, and in control. Come on! Slower, and in control. I commanded myself. I rolled out of the alleyway onto the streets. I was moving faster than I ever have before on foot, and I could still tell this was a fraction of a speed I was capable of! I sped up a bit, and started searching through the streets for any indication of where I was. Everything was simultaneously clear, and a blur as I passed by streets, and looked around for a sign or something.

I passed restaurants, apartment complexes, a park, and a convenience store or two before finding myself in the main part of the city, and coming to a dead stop, because towering above me was the Wayne Foundation.

Change of plans, find Metropolis. No, find out which universe I'm in, then hopefully find Metropolis. I conceded to myself. I wasn't scared of Batman per say, but I had a feeling any other hero would be more friendly, or more trusting than him. Wait wifi is probably universal right? I mean I'd get no service because my phone wouldn't be able to connect to the satellites or whatever, but wifi is wifi is it not?

Running throughout the city I tried finding a store or something that offered free wifi, and I eventually came across a store by the name of "Moonbucks" that sounded very familiar. I ducked into a nearby alleyway and slammed the Omnitrix button to detransform, and an instant later I found myself back in my regular body. Boy did it feel weird.

I walked into the Moonbucks, and immediately found myself a seat. I wasn't going to be here for too long, so I didn't feel that bad about not purchasing anything. Opening up my phone, I went directly for the wifi setting, and bingo! Moonbucks customer wifi was available! I opened up safari and Google, which was still a thing, and I wasn't going to question it.

I instantly typed in Superman, Blackest night, Coast City destruction, Justice League, and things along those lines. I could be certain I wasn't in main continuity DC, as Coast City was never destroyed, and Blackest night hasn't happened. Superman was still Superman, and not communist or evil, and the Justice League was a thing since 2003 when an Appellaxian invasion brought them together.

I searched through the recent news and discovered two facts: Today was July 5th, 2010, and yesterday Cadmus Labs recently suffered an explosion. Well it wasn't the worst of places really, Young Justice was lower on the power scale, and it wasn't as much of a death world as normal DC.

My next actions were clear to me: Find Metropolis, find Superman, and go from there. I quickly searched up a map from Gotham to Metropolis, and tried to memorize it to the best of my abilities, luckily though they seemed to be relatively close to each other,

I left the shop, found myself an alley, and transformed. I may or may not have yelled out XLR8 along the way, but who cares about that. I remembered the direction that Metropolis was in and ran or rolled depending how you look at it. Everything around me slowed down, and I found myself out of the city in a little less than a minute. Around 7 minutes later I spotted a sign that said "Welcome to Metropolis" and I filled with a child-like glee.

Okay, so what speed do I have to go to run up a building? I questioned. If I could position myself atop a building, and called for Superman I could probably get his attention... I found myself a nice, tall building. I stood away from it before accelerating, as I transitioned to running on the wall I felt my grip loosen. I clawed at the side of the building before falling a few stories and hitting the concrete with sickening crack. I groaned, and moaned in pain for more than a few minutes, I even transformed back into myself.

I laid there for more than a few minutes before mustering the courage, and willpower to try again. I transformed once again into XLR8, and put even more distance between myself and the building. I raced towards it, placed my feet up the wall, and finally managed to successfully climb atop the building.

Atop the building I detransformed, and gave the beautiful Metropolis skyline a gaze. I could've gotten lost in the sight if I were being honest with myself. The wind blew through my shoulder length hair, and I took a few moments to take everything in.

The moments were up, and it was time to hopefully meet Superman. Butterflies appeared in my stomach, because it was Superman, but I really couldn't afford to let that stop me. Tapping on the Omnitrix, and swiped to find the creature with earmuffs, and hoped he was who I thought he was. I slammed down on the Omnitrix, and in a flash of yellow I was suddenly shorter. My body was white, with long arms, and short legs. Earmuffs were melded to my head, and my assumption was correct.

This alien was Echo-Echo.

I took in as much as a deep breath as living soundwaves could, and screamed.

"Superman! Help me!"