Chapter 1

So, how should I start this? Because by all means the scenario right in front of me just doesn't make any sense. Hmm...well, I guess I will start with my name I suppose. My name is Malcolm Daniels, I am a 20-year-old African American who lived abroad in Europe, more specifically, in the U.K. I have been studying in university for 2 years now. Today was May 1st. To most, it was the just first day of the weekend but to me, it was gonna be more than that.

My friends and I planned on taking a trip for two days to London. We were gonna go around, enjoy the sites and take some pictures. We had also opted to book at a really nice Italian restaurant later in the evening. Then the next day we planned on doing some more sightseeing and buying souvenirs before heading back to our town in the evening.

When the appointed time arrived, we packed our stuff and went to the train station. Thankfully, the trains weren't closed, despite the pandemic situation. We hopped onto the train, and after two hours, we reached our destination. We also booked a place to stay at a hotel, which we were able to reach through a taxi.

From there, things went as usual. Once we placed our bags, we did what we intended to do, we went around and sightseed all around London. We took a lot of photos of places while taking a lot of group photos and selfies. Once evening rolled around, we ate from the restaurant that we booked and had a really fantastic meal. We ate dessert at a nice ice-cream parlor before heading back to the hotel. When we got back, we basically went to our separate rooms and did our own thing. I, in particular, was watching a couple TV shows, mainly Invincible and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

I wasn't exactly living a very enriching lifestyle, but my parents were able to do their best to make sure I had a comfortable life, so I'm grateful. Honestly, things were going great. I got to hang out with my pals as we caught a break from studying, exams are popping up but I'm wholly prepared for them as I spent the entire week studying for it with minimal breaks and all of my previous test scores have been excellent. I just knew that I was gonna ace the exams. It feels like nothing can stop me now.

In hindsight, I should have expected that Murphy was going to be that much of a dick after I finished those thoughts. I started to feel really tired.

"Damn I feel too tired to get up and take a shower. I guess I'll do it tommoorrroowww-''. And just like that, without any kind of pomp or circumstance, I immediately passed out right on top of my chair with all the lights of my hotel room still turned on and my laptop still switched on, currently playing the last minutes of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.


Whatever happened to me next? Well to answer your good question my dear viewer, who I'm most certainly just imagining out of my ass, I have absolutely no fucking clue. No seriously, I don't know where the hell I am. All I see in my immediate surroundings is an absolute void with no external features present.

I'm not in space (and frankly I'd have no idea how the fuck I would get there) or any fake space simulation because I should still see sparkling lights of stars at least. I'm definitely not blindfolded, nor do I have some kind of leather bag covering my entire head, because I'm pretty sure I'd feel something either covering my eyes or my entire head respectively.

Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I can't feel practically…. anything for that matter and I don't mean that in an emotional sense, I mean that I literally don't have any kind of physical sensations on me. The only thing that seems to work is my vision, which is allowing me to see everything that's going on, and oddly enough there seems to be a bluish hue of light that is giving me some form of illumination to help me see. Honestly, though I can't seem to pinpoint where this light is coming fr-OH MY GOD.

Uhhh I'm sorry, WHAAAAAT?! Why am I blue? And also, why am I glowing? But above all else, I really have to ask though, WHY THE HELL AM I FUCKING BLUE?! Seriously, what the hell happened to me? I was in my bedroom minding my business and now I am what? Some kind of ethereal firefly?!

'Alright, calm down Malcolm. This is an odd situation to be in right now but panicking ain't gonna solve anything. Now pick up your shit and let's try to understand what's going on, what happened, and where the fuck are we right now?'

However, before I could answer any of those questions that seemed to plague my own dilemma, I started to feel a form of an odd pulling sensation, and in a quick turn of events, before I could even try to discern where the hell that was coming from, I suddenly started to move. Or at least I feel that I'm moving.

I'll be honest, I have no idea how fast I'm actually going, everything still looks like a void of sorts and there are no sounds going around that could indicate if I'm even moving at all for that matter. But despite all of that I, for whatever reason, do in fact feel that I am moving somehow. Just can't seem to pinpoint how.

Or so my thoughts dictated until suddenly a blinding flash of white light gets registered to my retinas? Eyes? I still have no clue what's actually going on so for the entire event I'm just going to state whatever I see from my vision sockets. So anyway, blinding white light hits my vision sockets and after a few moments of being blinded (it's an odd thing to think about when you're blinded but you feel no pain in your eyes/vision sockets) I finally get a glimpse of whatever just happened right in front of me.

Beautiful lights start going around me, whizzing in ways that make me feel like I'm inside a nightclub during a dance event with all the lights moving about. In another instance I start to see literal suns fly by me, all of which in different shapes, sizes, and colours like yellow, red, white, blue, and so on and all of which are what I can assume to be hundreds of millions of times bigger than my own size (if whatever I am currently is the same size as I am human).

I then start to see these… immensely dark circles with red and orange streaks of light surrounding it, and from there I can only assume these things to be black holes. In virtually no time at all I seem to pinpoint spherical structures of different colours and shapes that seem to have a more solidified aesthetics to them compared to the previous structures I've witnessed; these are most definitely planets. Later on, I start to see more constructions, all of which seem to imitate my current knowledge of celestial bodies like asteroids or galaxies, that I'm pretty sure I have a really good idea where the hell I am currently flying through.

"Oh so NOW I'm in space," I say/think in a somewhat shocked yet sarcastic tone (truthfully, I can't feel my mouth so I don't know how the hell my voice is being projected in my mind).

"Hmm, you know, while seeing space from this point of view is kinda shocking and most definitely amazing, to say the least, it does bring up a very new question. WHY THE HELL AM I FLYING IN FUCKING SPACE?!" I exclaimed loudly.

"I really don't know how the hell I got here for that matter. Did I get drugged and I'm suffering hallucinations? Did I eat the wrong food last night? Is this some sort of prank?"

All of these questions in a certain sense point to the fact that somebody did something and all I can say right now with all this in mind; "WHEN I FIND THE SICK BASTARD WHO DID THIS TO ME, I WILL FUCKING END HIM"

Any further thoughts in regards to murder and strangulation are cut short due to being distracted by the absurdity of what the hell I'm seeing next.

"I'm sorry, I think I'm seeing things. I could've sworn I saw a motherfucking spaceship."

I start to close my vision sockets and count to ten hoping that I was just being delusional, or rather more delusional than I currently am. To which I open them only find that now the scenery has changed and instead of one ship, I've encountered a freaking armada. Most of which seems to have a symbol of a giant yellow wing painted on the side of it.

"Huh, why does that look familiar?"

But before I could try to process something that looked straight out of a science fiction novel, my scenario shifted once more and I started to see fiery-like projections flying close to my proximity. Correction, those are not projections but rather… people?

As I look closer, I start to see a group of human-like beings, all of which are wearing some very distinctive set of clothing. Mainly a skin-tight, bluish-black coloured costume. The spandex-looking clothes seem to cover every part of their body. On their torso: three golden circles connected together by lines all of which forming a V-shaped symbol on it. They also seem to have shoulder guards, arm bracers, and for a few of them, leg bracers. All of which, from what I can observe, are golden coloured. And from their lower legs, they seem to be wearing black boots.

But by far the most distinct feature of them all are their golden-coloured helmets. These helmets cover their entire head except for their mouth and chin. Their eyes seem to have a distinct light-blue glow coming out. However, all of that is overshadowed by the star-shaped red accessory on their glabella. The red star seems to be eight legs, four of which being longer than the rest, and of those four: two of them extend towards their eyebrows while the other two extend vertically downwards towards the nose and upwards towards their forehead.

"What the fuck?! Are those who I think they are?"

And of course, like every moment I try to process the new circumstance I find myself in, my current landscape changes (I'm sensing a pattern here). And just like the last vision, this one seems to also be just as ridiculous as the last one because, and I shit you not, right now you're currently seeing what I can only imagine to be a giant fire-bird.

However, upon looking closer, I notice that there is a human-looking person directly in front of the avian creature. As I look closer, I start to understand that the 'person' in front of me isn't exactly as human as initially thought.

For starters, the thing in front of me has a feminine-like figure. Her entire body doesn't have the distinct features of that of a human, rather all I could tell is that her body is made up of some kind of flaming essence. Her face as well is just as indistinct except for her eyes which seem to have a brighter glow of orange compared to the rest of her body and, surprisingly, a mouth. Out of her entire look, however, her hair is the most eye-catching part of all as it seems to be showing off a burning red luminescence.

Before I could comment on that, something else picks up on my vision. Unlike the radiant women though, this one is gloomier, to say the least. From what I can tell, this being also seems to be feminine in nature similar to the fire-woman standing in front of her. However, that's where the similarity ends as she seems to be wearing a purple robe that covers her entire body except for her head which looks like a—a—a skull?!

"Yeeeaaahhh…no. This really is the weirdest thing I've seen all day. Like seriously what the fuck am I actually fucking seeing here?"

My question seems to remain unanswered as these two entities seem to be facing each other as though they're having a conversation. This is supported by the fact that I can actually see each of their mouths moving. I can't seem to hear what they're saying and, in the end, it doesn't matter because they both seem to stop and move their heads towards my direction.

I look around to see if they're looking at something else but then I notice that there's nothing else in my general (moving) vicinity and thus prompted me to realise that they both are staring right at me.

The "hot" woman just stares towards me with her eyes squinted. The skull figure does the same but also decides to do something I find completely unexpected: she waved at me with her bone-like hands. My mind doesn't seem to fully register that fact as I automatically give a wave back as though I was doing it to a person.

And like every song and dance of my current plight, the scene in front of me changes before I could even begin to grasp anything else.

I would like to believe that the rest of my journey was smooth sailing, but then I'd just be lying to myself. Along the way, I encountered all types of bizarre things that I kinda just adapted to craziness. From black slimy monsters, to huge alien insects. Of course, however, nothing can beat the weirdest thing I probably encountered for the day; A giant purple golem with a human face. And by giant, I mean that this thing is so huge that he literally dwarfs all the planets in his vicinity.

The thing is though, the purple golem basically sold me on where exactly I am and I really, REALLY, don't want to agree to the conclusion that I ended up reaching. Because by doing so, I'd have accepted the fact that I found myself in a death world.

My landscape changed around me one more time but unlike the other occurrences, this one surprised me because I instantly recognised what it was; Planet Earth. I could also see other celestial bodies close to it, like the other planets in the inner solar system (mars, venus, and mercury), the Moon that's right next to it, and finally, the Sun which is almost impossible to ignore because of how bright it is.

"Hey look at that, I can see the polar ice-caps from here. Damn those satellite pictures of earth weren't lying. I mean I knew they weren't fake but it's nice to get some more confirmation. In fact, I can actually see one of those satelli- wait a minute. How can I see satellites? They should've been too small for me to-OH GOD NO!"

I say as the realisation dawned upon me that I'm actually headed towards earth at an incredibly fast rate. Within no time at all my sight of earth expands and expands until the very planet is right in front of me. And I don't seem to be stopping any time soon.

My panicking mood doesn't stop as I descend further towards the ground. And that's when I realised that I seemed to be on a collision course straight into a rather large building in the middle of a city.

"For the love of God, SOMEBODY PLEASE PULL THE BRAKES ON THIS THING!" I all but shout as I close my eyes in fear. For some unknown reason, I felt like I hit something very hard which led to me blacking out.


Location: Unknown

Date: Unknown

Time: Unknown

Malcolm Daniels

"Owww, fuck. Did anybody catch that fucking bus that hit me?" I utter quietly as I start to come to. I try to open my eyelids but a bright light overwhelms my vision prompting me to close them again. Slowly but surely, I was able to adjust to it and finally come to, only to see a white ceiling directly above me. I also felt the sensation that I was resting on top of a very comfortable bed.

The thoughts of my comfort came to a stop as I heard an odd beeping noise to the left of me. I start to move my head and try to find where that sound is coming from. All I could see was a machine that looked a lot like a heart monitor that you'd find in hospitals.

I decided to dart my eyes around in order to see my current surroundings to which, in my opinion, perfectly matches a typical hospital room fitted with everything you'd be able to find. A window to my right along with a sofa and pillows under it, A TV screen in front of me which is currently opened to the news channel, a table and a chair that I could see in a corner and finally two doors; one that's probably the bathroom door and the other likely connected to the hallway.

"Why am I in a hospital room?" I questioned myself. As I try to process my current location, memories regarding my weird spaceflight started resurfacing. My eyes widened as I recalled the details that happened at that bizarre event.

"Wait, my body isn't blue anymore?" I said as I looked at my body in shock. My body looks as normal as it should be. Although I notice that my arms are noticeably more defined and larger than normal. I also notice some white patches on my left arm that are connected to an IV bag and to the heart monitor separately along with a wristband on my left wrist.

'What in the hell happened? First, I get knocked out in my hotel room watching a tv show. Then I started to have that odd dream where I kept seeing stuff coming straight out of a sci-fi graphic novel. And now I wake up in an actual hospital room without any idea of how I got here? And why do I feel different than usual?'

Looking around a bit more I notice that the sky from the window is showing daytime. I also notice a bag on the table. I try to look around some more trying to find why everything looks so unusual.

'I swear I feel like I'm missing something here but I don't know what. I need to find someo- wait… why can't I feel my legs?' I thought in utter shock as I noticed that I couldn't seem to move or feel anything below my hips.

Try as I might, I could not, for all my effort, move my legs like my life depended it on it. My anxiety appeared to be mirrored by the heart monitor as it started to beep faster and faster. Suddenly, the door opened, and in came what I can only assume to be a nurse.

Nothing much to describe her aside from her short dark hair, caucasian skin colour, brown eyes, and the blue coloured nursing scrubs.

"Ah! I see that you're finally awake." says the nurse with a British accent.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" I responded back.

"I'm your nurse; you can call me Nurse Mary. And are you Mister Malcolm Daniels?" questioned the nurse.

"Uh, y-yes that's me. Can you explain why I am in a hospital bed? And to add to that, why can't I feel my legs" I asked back with my fear showing.

"Oh!" she exclaims in surprise. "You have no memory of what happened to you?" She inquires while raising a single eyebrow.

"No, nothing as far as I can recall. Can you please tell me what actually happened to me?" I asked curiously.

"Sir, I'm sorry to say this but you got involved in a traffic accident 4 days ago." She explains to me.

I stare into her for a full minute thinking that I was hearing some kind of joke. But seeing that her expression did not change and that she wasn't actually joking, I couldn't help but actually shout:

"WHAT?!" I shouted before speaking one more time; "The hell do you mean a traffic accident? That makes no sense whatsoever. The last thing I remembered was me being in a hotel trying to watch something on my laptop. And what did you mean 4 days ago? Didn't I pass out last night?" I talked while trying to understand the incredulity of her statement.

She clarified: "I don't know what to tell you Mr. Daniels but you really were involved in a traffic accident 4 days ago which left you unconscious. The truck that hit you has damaged your spine extensively from your lower lumbar to your sacrum and your spinal cord from that region has been fully injured. I'm truly sorry to say this to you but you are paralysed from the waist down." She tells me solemnly.

I say nothing. Or rather, I don't know what to say to that. In what fucking way should I be able to respond to that? I have no clue as to how I should answer that because frankly, there shouldn't be any way to respond to the impossibility that I just heard. Well…. except for one phrase that is;

"What. In. The. Fuck?" I spoke with firm disbelief.

Before I could even think of an actual better response to everything I just heard, the TV screen changed with the volume being slightly raised. The news channel seems to be currently showcasing the words "Breaking News" on their template before it transitions into a screen revealing a typical news reporter.

[And now, our top story of the evening. Just five minutes ago a press conference was held at the Stark Industries Headquarters by Owner and CEO, Tony Stark following the recent attack occurring in Los Angeles. The press conference was in response to the Metal-armoured vigilante, being dubbed as "Iron Man", saving the civilians from what official sources claim to be a malfunctioning robot that was attempting to cause harm. During the press conference, Tony Stark decided to shock the entire world with these words to say:]

The screen then transitions to a video feed broadcasting a young Robert Downey Junior wearing an Armani suit and standing on a stage behind a podium table. Standing behind him was someone who looked like Don Cheadle wearing a navy-blue general's uniform. An audience of reporters can be seen in front of both of them.

[...I am Iron Man] said the person looking like RDJ. This led to the reporters moving from their seats and rushing towards the stage to ask questions.

"Wow, it's so hard to believe that the man who once acted like a pompous ass actually has a heart. I guess whatever happened in his kidnapping must've been one hell of an experience." said the nurse.

However, for me, that broadcast gave me a different experience altogether. Aside from the fact that I easily recognised the scene from Iron Man 1, not a second sooner after I heard those words from 'Tony Stark' did I feel a headache so agonizing that it made all the migraines I've ever had feel like an itch in comparison.

"Uuugggghhh" I groan in agony. I swear the pain is so unbearably bad that it feels like my skull is about to burst open like a piñata.

"Hmm? Mr. Daniels, is something the matter?" said the nurse as she walked closer to see what's wrong with me.

I could barely register her words on the account of my migraine increasing in intensity. My vision is starting to blur all around me. I can't seem to concentrate with all this pain happening to me and my hearing seems to worsen.

"Mr. Daniels, is every alright? Mr. Daniels? MISTER DANIELS?!" She raises her voice on that last part in alarm as I almost stagger myself off of my bed. She grabs ahold of my shoulders and readjusts me back to bed. She keeps calling my name but to no avail. I start to lose focus on my vision and I can't seem to hear anything else as the nurse's voice fades out.

'Isn't this the third time I'm blacking out?' I thought humorously. The last thing I could visibly see is the nurse moving quickly towards the direction of the door, probably to call for help from any nearby doctor or staff member.

And just like that, I black out again. But this time it was due to the pain.


Location: Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, Birmingham, UK

Date: November 26, 2009

Time: 4:17 pm

Malcolm Daniels, now awoken with a new lease in life….literally

I opened my eyes to see the same white ceiling that I saw before my painful affair. But this time there's no confusion in my eyes, only understanding, acknowledgement, and slight perturbation of my… conundrum so to say.

I've seen a lot of stories, especially the fanfiction kind, where the main character from my original earth gets transported to a different world. Usually, the world in question would house a fantasy-like setting and how they get transported can be through multiple methods. These methods tend to involve either some form of interdimensional teleportation, the cycle of death and reincarnation, a random truck (who the internet would later dub as truck-kun), or a Random Omnipotent Being or ROB for short.

These were the general methodologies involving Isekai. Of course, it's never the same for everybody due to the circumstances behind it, so there's always some form of variation of some kind. Nonetheless, the end result will always remain the same, with the main character getting transported to a new dimension.

Why am I bringing this up? Because it appears that I followed that trend as well. Although, my case follows a similar pattern you'd find in many self-insert fanfictions; I got inserted into the body of a resident of this universe. How am I so certain? Because my head is filled with the memories of Malcolm Daniels of this world.

For the most part, he and I had similar childhood and teenage years. We grew up in the same neighborhood and gone through the same schools. We even picked the same career choice of mechanical engineer. Of course, there were actual differences. Here, I was an only child instead of having siblings. My circle of friends was a lot smaller than original. My mother wasn't American in this world but rather British. Sadly, my mother died early on during my teenage years. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that it was a very devastating moment for the this world's Malcolm.

As for my father, he worked for the government instead of being an engineer in my original world. He took care of me ever since then. He did drink frequently when my mom died, but he never lashed out at me. From then on, he would drink less and less until he stopped drinking altogether. I remember a story in one of my memories where my dad had an abusive father back when he grew up. He vowed to never be like him if he ever had kids. I guess he really wanted to stick it to him.

My dad always treated me right, but sadly this universe had other plans. My dad contracted cancer before I graduated high school. He kept fighting but, in the end, I lost him around the second year of my bachelor's. That was also a painful year for me. He did however leave me a will where he left all of his funds to my name.

I'll be honest. I didn't know what he did while working for the government, but whatever he did made him earn more money than I could ever imagine. I wasn't extremely rich, but I had as much money as what a high-income middle-class worker would earn for an entire decade.

I often try to wonder what it's like to have memories that originally never belonged to you. It's weird when you honestly think about it. It's you but, at the same time, it's not. I read my other self's memories as if I was in a movie theatre, except the movie is also explaining that the character in the movie is me, and after every scene, you feel as though you were there experiencing it. It's jarring, to say the least.

Then I guess that explains why I had that blue, corporeal form during my dream- err, I mean my space flight. That must've been either my soul, my mind, my conscious/subconscious, or maybe all of the above. Whatever it is that made up my identity was transferred from my original body in my home universe to this one. But then that brings up quite a few questions.

How did my soul get transferred? Did someone summon me? And if so, then who? Was it someone belonging to this universe or was it a ROB? If that's the case, then why? Maybe something happened from my original dimension?

Not only that but there are other questions as well. Like, what ever happened to this universe's Malcolm's soul? Did it disappear? Did my intrusion destroy it? Will it come back to take over what was originally his?

So many goddamn questions, and not even a single fucking clue on figuring out an answer. I know I shouldn't worry, but it's hard to do so when I'm in a hospital with paraplegia. It also doesn't help that I got separated from those close to me without any way for me to say goodbye. And then there's the fact that I'm in a fucking death world.

Ah yes, when I say death world, I do mean death world. Marvel may look nice initially with their iconic heroes and their flamboyant costumes, that even your grandma has probably heard of them. But once you remove that colourful surface and look a little closer, you'll easily notice that something just doesn't seem right.

Not only that, the things I saw both in my memories and in my spaceflight all the more confirmed to me that this isn't even the actual Marvel Cinematic Universe which makes me double fucked. While I honestly did enjoy the MCU movies and tv shows, the power level of the MCU in comparison to the comics was so much weaker. The abilities and capabilities shown by some characters in the movies don't even come close to what they're capable of in the comics.

The point is, if it was the MCU, I could've been much safer due to the sheer scarcity of world- and universe-ending threats. And what makes things even worse is the fact that my knowledge of the comics and tv shows isn't all that great, per se. While I have seen and read my fair share of comics, watched a lot of tv shows and with having a good deal of knowledge coming from both the fandom and my extensive read of the wiki, I don't see myself as an expert in marvel, not by a long shot.

While I'm trying to mull over the gravity of my situation, I hear the door open to my left. This time, the person who entered looks exactly like a doctor, wearing a lab coat over a shirt, tie, and a pair of trousers.

The doctor in question has green eyes, a goatee, and a hairstyle being bald on top with the sides quaffed into points above the ears. His goatee was well maintained going just past his chin.

"Ah, glad to see you awake Mr. Daniels," said the doctor as he smiled upon seeing me.

"And you are?" I ask with a single eyebrow raised.

"Ah! Sorry about that, my name is Dr. Anthony Druid. You could say that I'm the doctor who oversaw your treatment while you were unconscious." clarified the doctor.

"Oh. Well, is there anything I could help you with, Dr. Druid?" I asked.

"Well, I came to check up on you but seeing as you're awake, I would ask if I can do some tests on you to see if everything is alright." He explained to me.

"By all means, go right ahead," I told him.

The doctor then proceeded to grab his tools in order to do a physical while proceeding to ask questions in regards to what happened the day before.

"One of the nurses who were taking care of you, Nurse Mary, told me that before your immediate loss of consciousness, you acted as though you couldn't remember whatever happened to you. Is that right?" he asked curiously

"Yea, I didn't know why but for some reason I couldn't recall whatever happened to me," I told him.

"Judging by your answer, I assume you can remember now?" The doctor questioned.

"Yeah, I remember," I informed him. It happened a month after I graduated from my university. I was on my way to my house that I recently moved into. There was a kid with his mother who was crossing the street in front of me. A truck was coming by and for whatever reason, the dumbass driver didn't notice either of them. I didn't have enough time to grab them both to the other side, all I could do was push them off the street.

The good news was that I was able to save both of them, but the bad news…. well, you already know why I'm here. Suffice it to say, this world's Malcolm was heroic in every sense of that moment. I don't think I could ever pull a move like that at the risk of my own life.

As for the truck driver? Well, I can't say what happened after getting KO'd, but from the sound of the wheels turning, it's safe to assume that the fucker drove off. Likely trying to isolate himself from the situation. I hope that guy gets run over.

As I was recollecting what happened, the doctor continued with the physical.

"Well, amnesia due to blunt force trauma is somewhat common, but I would recommend doing an X-ray scan to see if there isn't any lasting damage to your brain." He replied

"I don't mind I suppose," I answered in return.

"And tell me, how do you feel right now?" he asked me.

"Well gee doctor, both of my entire legs are fully senseless, so you tell me," I said with evident sarcasm and annoyance. The doctor hummed in understanding. He then continued the physical in silence

"Well, that's about it. The nurses will come by in an hour and if everything is fine, we can do the X-ray scan tomorrow morning. From the results, we can then discuss the treatment plan after that you can be discharged. Of course, if the results from the X-ray are good." He explained happily. I nodded to him.

'Anthony Druid. Why does that name seem familiar? Damn, I can't seem to recall.'

Before he left, I asked the doctor to bring my bag from the table. Opening it, I could see that everything looked fine. Even my laptop that I could find did not even have a single dent on it, which is a miracle considering I was carrying my bag during the truck incident. Even as I'm booting it up, there seems to be no issue whatsoever.

Once I got a Wi-Fi connection, I checked through google to get a good visual of what kind of Earth I'm in. From the things I've seen, I can paint a really good picture of what to expect.

The events that happened in Iron Man 1 are more or less consistent with this timeline. Tony got abducted by the ten rings, to which he escaped after making the Iron Man armor MK.I with the assistance of Dr. Ho Yinsen. His death has also been recorded as well, likely by Stark after explaining what happened to him. Everything else seems to fit perfectly well with the events shown. From discontinuing the Weapons production to the plummet in stock markets to the attack in Gulmira village and finally culminating in the event in Los Angeles.

Moving on from there, I checked to see if Bruce Banner had become the Hulk yet. So far, he's been labelled as 'missing' during an incident occurring in Culver University. They haven't specified what happened in said incident other than a laboratory getting destroyed due to "unforeseen events" and that the military is now involved. Of course, having watched the movies, this was all a lie to keep the fact that the military created something they couldn't control. Bruce has likely hidden himself over in Brazil.

I then checked to see if New Mexico had any odd occurrences. Suffice to say, nothing in the news mentioned anything. No satellite crash, no news of a major lightning storm, nothing. It seems that Thor hasn't appeared yet. Or rather, he has appeared on earth before actually. Multiple times if the info from the comics actually applies here. In fact, one of those times was to promote his godhood to the Vikings.

Moving on from that little sidetrack, knowing the fact that this isn't the MCU, I decided to check if mutants existed. And man, not only do they exist, but there has been a lot of anti-mutant bigotry going around. From multiple news coverage and televangelists talking about the fear of mutants to numerous websites, Facebook groups, and videos trying to spread hate and fear. Some of the hate is also propelled due to the actions of a terrorist group known as The Brotherhood of Mutants.

Speaking of The Brotherhood, one google search shows their entire line-up with Magneto floating front and centre. Magneto, along with the rest of the team, has actually been identified. Well, almost all of them, Avalanche still has his face hidden in a mask, and Mystique because, well aside from the fact that she's an assassin, she's blue. At least her skin was smooth like in the comics and not like in the movies. And as expected, Erik Lehnsherr isn't holding back with the "mutant superiority" schtick that he's enforcing.

I continued to search more on the mutant side of things, and I did so by looking up Charles Xavier. As I expected, the first thing you can find online is a Wikipedia page regarding him and his background. The page did explain about him having a Ph.D. in multiple fields of biology-based sciences and the fact that he has published a peer-reviewed thesis in regards to 'Homo-superior'. But of course, the most important fact is that he opened a public school for mutants called "Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters''.

The school itself is explained as a place to train young mutants in controlling their powers and help foster a friendly human-mutant relationship. And along with their powers, the school itself also teaches their students in things they would learn in normal schools and colleges like maths, sciences, multicultural languages, Sex-ED, you name it. Simply put, it's like a personalised private school if said school taught everything. The school also houses as a safe haven for any mutants who have no place for a home.

However, something else that caught my eye is that the X-men exist in this universe. Xavier has publicly announced them as an independent team that was created to not only help all mutants during the onset of their powers and get them to safety but also to stop any and all crimes that have been acted on or caused by mutants.

Despite the hate of mutants in the public, the American Government has actually greenlit the X-men and their operations. Likely due to the fact that they act as deterrents to mutant-related incidents and for all the good that they have done with dealing with them. Although, the decision has been met with a lot of mixed reviews.

Moving on from mutants, I tried to think what else to search until I recalled a certain web-slinger in my memories. Sure enough, there's a lot of news and stuff going around with Spider-man. He's definitely different compared to his MCU counterpart, in fact, the first thing I noticed is that he looks a lot older compared to MCU Peter Parker. Another thing to take note of is that in some of the videos I've seen, he actually has some kind of voice modulator on him. I guess he's really being serious about the secret identity thing he got going.

Surprisingly, not only is Spider-man active, but some of the villains in his rogue gallery are active as well. Herman Schultz aka Shocker, Aleksei Sytsevich aka Rhino, Maxwell Dillon aka Electro, and MacDonald Gargan aka Scorpion have actually appeared. Not only that, but Spider-man even fought against a Sand monster just three days ago, so Flint Marko/William Baker also got added to the roster. Looking more into it, there's even sightings of a certain black cat who's making headlines through her thievery.

Aside from spiderman, there has been the news of other heroes in New York as well. One such case involves a few articles talking about the "Devil of Hell's Kitchen" who comes at the dead of night and brutally destroys his victims. Despite the devilish persona, all of his victims were either ex-convicts, potential rapists and murderers, prisoners under probation, thugs, and so on. Not only that, witnesses claimed that said victims were in the midst of doing a crime, so despite the cruelty, the devil actually saved them. I guess Matt really couldn't stand the crime, seeing as how he's a few years earlier than his MCU counterpart as well.

Moving on, The Fantastic Four have actually appeared as well. The online info on their origin is similar to their counterparts in different universes as well; an unsanctioned space flight was conducted by a team of 4 people: Reed Richards; a brilliant scientist and engineer who is known to be among the smartest in the world, Susan Storm; an intelligent biologist, Johnny Storm; a recent high school graduate and the brother of Susan and finally Ben Grimm; a US Air Force pilot and a friend of Reed Richards. Together they flew high into space using a ship built by Reed.

In their own testimony, things were going fine. Unbeknownst to them, however, their ship hit a wave of cosmic radiation. Despite being prepared for it, the intensity of the radiation was too strong for their ship's shielding to handle. They ended up crashing back down to earth, where they suddenly realised that they gained newfound abilities. All four decided to use their powers to better humanity, and become the hero group we all know of as the Fantastic Four.

Even Ms. Marvel and Captain Marvel have made an appearance. Although they aren't as frequent as the previous mentioned heroes, they do come out and help around every so often. Even moreso with Ms. Marvel. Although I do wonder, with their appearance, does SHIELD know about them, especially Captain Marvel? In fact, is SHIELD a thing here as well? Do they have records of these heroes? Are they like the MCU where they got infiltrated by Hydra?

Before I could continue my research any further, the door opened and a different nurse entered the room. It seems I've been so engrossed with my research that I didn't see the time fly by. I thought it was a good time for me to stop now and try to process the info I was given. The nurse did a round of tests to make sure that everything turned out alright. Once I was done, she brought in a tray with food on it.

GGRRROOOOOWWWWWLLLLL

…..Perfect timing too. Holy shit, I knew I haven't eaten for a few days but damn. The nurse smiled at me as she brought the tray but I could tell she was barely holding in her giggles. Once she left, and also after I heard her laughing fit outside the door, I decided to indulge my hunger by literally eating everything like a beast. Hospital food may be disgusting, but not having food for four days straight can make any man's sense of taste change. In other words, this is the best hospital food I've ever eaten.

After I was satisfied, a wave of tiredness hit me like a truck and I felt the need for sleep. I guess I'll have to figure things out by tomorrow.


Location: Saltley Wellbeing Centre, Birmingham, UK

Date: November 27, 2009

Time: 2:17 pm

POV: Malcolm Daniels

After waking up early in the morning, I did the CT test that my doctor recommended. The results came out that I had no sort of brain injury, so that's good. After that, I discussed with my doctor about both my prescriptions and my treatment plan. He also explained that a hired caregiver will come to pick me up before I discharge.

After a bit of waiting, my caregiver showed up. She's a woman that goes by the name of Kate. Once we got everything sorted, I was finally discharged. She had her car ready and we took off. First, we went to the pharmacy to get my prescriptions, and then after that, we went straight home. It was a five-minute drive from there. Once we reached home, we entered inside so that I could show her the layout. Thankfully, my house's design is made so that there's also a bedroom at the ground floor. I told her that she could sleep in the bedroom upstairs while I could sleep on the ground floor . Once she understood the layout, she told me that she'll stay in her room unless she's needed to help me.

"Uh, Kate? Before you could do any of that, there's a park that's near to the house. Could you just help take me there?" I solicited her.

"Oh, uh sure I don't mind. May I ask why you want to go there, Mr. Daniels?" She asked back.

"It's because I need some time to think my thoughts. The things I've experienced up to this point are very much….. life-changing to say the least. Oh, and please, call me Malcolm." I explained to her.

"Ah, I understand what you mean Mr. Dani-er I mean, Malcolm." She spoke. Although, I'm almost certain she has no idea what I actually meant when I said 'life-changing'.

Once we reached the park which took roughly 5 minutes on foot and wheel, we stopped at a nearby bench.

"Uh, Kate? I think it would be best if you leave me alone for a few minutes. I'd rather be myself for the time being. You don't have to be far away, but just far enough." I told Kate.

"I understand, Malcolm. Call me once you feel that you're done so that I can pick you up." Kate requested before she left in an unknown direction, leaving me to my thoughts. All I did was just stare at the blue sky while I tried to accept the reality of my dilemma.

I have no idea what to do. I found myself in a world that isn't filled with sunshines and rainbows, but rather a world where being in the wrong place and at the wrong time will get you killed. I may be a certified engineer, but I don't have the intelligence to invent or build fantastic or outstanding machines like Tony Stark, Reed Richards, or any other mad geniuses who can build Nobel-Prize worthy inventions, even if I did graduate as one of the smartest amongst my peers. I'm pretty sure I have no latent superpowers nor did any genetic factors like the X-gene or the inhuman gene actually kick in, otherwise original Malcolm would've survived that unpleasant collision with that Truck.

I could probably go to Kamar-Taj, or the London Sanctum in order to practice magic. But knowing that parts of this world are related to the MCU, Mordo could just remove any and all progress I ever made with magic just because of whatever psychotic notion he believes in.

Even ignoring my dysfunction, I can't even visualise how I can obtain my powers externally without getting myself into a risky situation. Telling my future knowledge to any government is also a no-go as well because, sooner or later, that secret will somehow reach some villain in some way and he or she can just torture me to hell for that info, provided the government themselves don't torture me first. Hell, some of the villains will probably kill me once they're done getting what they want.

And to top it all off, all of this is happening in a body that doesn't belong to me and at a time where I was supposed to look for a job. This paralysis just threw a wrench into everything that OG Malcolm was trying to do.

"Sigh, why am I here? Why did I wake up in a world like this? Does the universe just want to see me suffer? To see me pitifully die to some maniac with powers or to some world-ending threat without being capable to do anything?" I ranted aloud.

But I wasn't done, I was far from done from my verbal tirade. Something in me just snapped inside and all I want right now is for some higher being like a deity, god, celestial or even One Above All to hear me speak—no, to hear me shout. To hear me cry-out. To hear me SCREAM TO THEM.

"I DON'T EVEN HAVE TO DO MUCH TO FUCKING DIE RIGHT NOW. LITERALLY, ANY RANDOM MUGGER CAN JUST SHANK ME TO DEATH. I COULD HAVE ANOTHER FUCKING TRUCK CRASH INTO ME AND I'D PROBABLY DIE. AND I WON'T BE ABLE TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT ALL OF THAT WHEN I CAN'T EVEN MOVE FIFTY PERCENT OF MY FUCKING BODY. WHY DID THIS HAVE TO HAPPEN TO ME? WHAT HAVE I FUCKING DONE TO DESERVE THIS BULLSHIT? AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD COULDN'T YOU AT LEAST GIVE ME SOMETHING TO FIGHT BACK WITH?" I howled at the top of my lungs as my anger, confusion, and fear have hit their peak.

I started to breathe in and out after that spewing session with the apprehension that maybe it wasn't the best idea to actually yell in a public park. I was ready to give an apology to the nearby crowd that may have formed from my little spout when I noticed that there was no crowd. In fact, when I looked around, I couldn't find anybody at all even as I'm moving in my wheelchair. I couldn't even find Kate.

'Where the hell did everyone go?' I queried in my mind. But before I wonder what's actually happening—

THUNK

"AAAAAAHH, WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!" I yelled out in pain as something hard and metallic hit my right shoulder.

"God damn, what in the fuck man. Does the world wanna cripple me even more now?" I ask as I still feel the deep pain on my shoulder.

I look around to see what hit me, only to find a small metal ball on the ground. As I move closer to inspect it, the ball starts to shift in place, making all kinds of noise until it stops. To my utter confusion, the ball started to open itself up and what I saw shocked me to my core.

Inside the ball, I see something akin to a very big wristwatch. The entire device is almost completely grey and with black ends on each side. There are white support tubes that surround the dial. The Dial itself consisted of a blackish rim, 2 grey arrows, and a green hourglass symbol in its centre.

Before I could even begin to comment on what I'm seeing, the watch instantly jumps towards my left arm at a speed beyond what I can react to and attach to my wrist, causing me to shout in surprise. My instincts are screaming at me to get the watch off of me but my mind is too preoccupied trying to process the completely nonsensical event that just happened.

And it's the fact that attached to my left wrist is none other than the actual Omnitrix. The same one from the Ben 10 franchise.

"…. You gotta be fucking kidding me."


End chapter

AN: Welcome to my first story ever written. No seriously, I've never written anything like this before nor do I have any experience in story-telling so... yeah I'm in some deep waters.

To be perfectly honest, I didn't actually plan on making this kind of story whatsoever but due to certain circumstances that happened to me a couple months ago, I found myself having a shit ton of free time and with nothing to do with it. Top it off with having these ideas in my head which were due to inspirations from other fanfics that I've read and well, here we are.

I've read a lot of stories that kind of got me into this mess. Though the main ones I want to call out are Dial, The Bearer, The Raptor of Life, Road to Divinity, and Fastest Man Alive.

I also posted this story in Questionable Questing as well. Please do check it out there as well. I might even post certain info and images there in regards to the story (provided I'm not lazy).

Give me a review whether you liked it or not. If there's something you didn't like, tell me your honest criticism on what you didn't like and why you didn't like it.

And yeah, that's all there's to it, Thanks for reading and see you in the next one.

Ciao.