Entities, indescribable beings of immense size whose sole purpose is to perpetuate a cycle. An endless cycle of seeking out planets inhabited by life, giving them powers beyond belief before seeking a heavy toll on them. These powers given to their host species are not without cost, for each time an Entity hands out a power which was specifically tailor-made to be restricted, they are studied and eventually returned through death. At the end of this cycle, planets are destroyed for their energy and recovery of Shards. Shards are what give these Entities immense power, the power to do whatever they wish and to share amongst other entities drifting throughout not only the cosmos - but the multiverse as a whole. The name of these Entities are simply called 'Worms'.

But it would be much more accurate to call them 'Parasites', no?

Oh sure, say what you might against the Entities and how they're only doing it to prevent entropic delay. But really, none of them have ever found a solution to it, have they? If they had, perhaps they might have realized that destroying the very planets they seek knowledge from by granting a host species shards before getting them back, would only be accelerating their demise. But then again, who knows? Maybe they were right in their search for a solution.

But even if they did manage to find a way to end the heat-death of the universe, what would they do when there's nothing left but them?

Nothing left but to consume each other.

They share nothing from its host species, nothing but raw data that makes up the whole. No creativity to actively seek out a solution, instead borrowing it from others- taking it from others before disposing of them like a cheap plastic toy. They do this without remorse, for countless cycles they have slaughtered entire species in all dimensions for their quest for preservation. No hint of any sign of what you would call 'Humanity' or even emotion. If they did have such a thing, well, you rarely saw the better of it until your own planet was cracking apart from the sheer strength of their powers.

Humans, by comparison, are much more tame.

Yes, habitually they are greedy little creatures driven by base desires and even baser instincts. Greedy men in high-end places seek to do nothing but to fatten themselves both figuratively and sometimes literally, whenever that be on women, money, drugs, food - anything that could be purchased by grubby little hands would be theirs. They extend their power for the sake of gaining or keeping theirs, doing whatever it takes to uphold that power at the cost of others. Killing their own planet slowly, driving themselves to extinction with blackened skies and an ever-present consumption for power to which they drain natural resources dry until there is nothing left. But these people, the hedonistic individuals who stand at the top of the food chain with nothing more but fat stacks of greenery in their pockets are only the 'One Percent'.

Much of humanity is complicated as much as their emotion, but on the farther 'Good' scale of things, they're rather nice.

They help each other, not by destroying essences of themselves each time - although sometimes that does happen spiritually - but through various means to lift each other up. Cooperation.

Of course, sometimes various Entities do this too. But it always ends in a planet being destroyed no matter what occurs, and thus there is no 'real' cooperation to be had there. What's the point of helping another if you simply erase them? Revenge? There is no such concept with the Entities. Pride? The Entities share no such trait amongst themselves. No, they do it to sustain an ever-perpetual cycle of spreading out their Shards, copies of themselves that drift throughout both space and dimension.

But humans, sometimes while their help is asked to be compensated in return, some of the time they ask nothing in return but grace or even a passing 'thanks'. People raise other people, communities, tight-knit groups who would help each other out in the most dire of situations. Those who call each other 'Friends' often help each other just because of their companionship. There are no parasitic tendencies here for the most part, and although favors can be repaid, they are not inherently obligations or even required to do such a thing besides out of the goodness of one's heart.

And this is where humanity is complex, with all its range of various emotions and different ways the mind functions. Emotions that intertwine with each other, perhaps creating a symbolic synergy in a way that certain species cannot comprehend. Love and hate are both mutually exclusive, and yet both tie in to each other depending on the interpretation. Is hate a lack of love, or is love a lack of hatred? Human philosophers, college students, teens, and everything in between ask questions at some point in their life to the very nature of humanity. Who are they, and what is their purpose in life? Worms cannot share this, or if they can, we'd certainly never see them. They know what they do from the moment they were formed.

Seek out inhabited planets.

Learn from these planets.

Destroy them to propagate themselves.

And yet some of these 'Worms' adapt from the hosts arounds them, and while most are hell-bent on repeating an ageless cycle without much thought or even consideration of the end goal. Some of them are… Cooperative. At least, at the very best they could be.

But what if, one of these 'Worms', these 'Entities', are given a chance to grow. Not just beyond information and knowledge to supplement themselves, but to wholly adapt to the host species and eventually become part of them? How would they change, how would they react? The very foundational instincts that drive humanity, animals, and even entities - would this mold them or break them? Perhaps they would've become something else entirely, through this adaptation of complex learning. A young entity, a child amongst everything else could be casted to one planet alone to learn from their experience without even learning of their nature. It is possible they would've grown in a different way.

And as they say, it takes a village to raise a child.

But these Entities are meant to be in packs of two, companions, partners. Sometimes they are loners. Yet do any of them hold real care for each other? They might, some certainly do. But for one of them to experience love? That has never been seen before.

Not until now.

For thousands of years, this Entity had been drifting through space in the hopes of finding an inhabited planet. They were new, undeveloped, inexperienced. Not entirely a bad thing, since they had occasionally met and greeted other entities that were more than welcome to share their shards - their knowledge to each other. Sometimes not, sometimes they stole from it. It was always… Apathetic when they did so, at least the best term to describe the unusual feeling it considered. For had it known anger and rage, it would've most certainly been angry. As it was, it felt nothing but apathy for its lost Shards. But this Entity was one of the very few who could sustain themselves and its shards by simply experimenting and creating more shards by itself, so no real harm was done in the long-term. A young one as itself, had the skills to survive and stand up for itself with few issues that could really make it 'Afraid' of its own impending doom. So idly it drifted through space and did nothing but soak up sunshine much like an organic plant would to create energy to sustain itself, eventually coming across a galaxy.

Planets passed by, barren ones. A shame really, rocks and floating dirt were nothing spectacular to behold when the originality of life made everything much more interesting. Oh- Wait! There was something up ahead that would grab its attention! A planet of green and blue. Within the goldilocks zone to which life thrived in, a perfect condition and placement away from the sun which would undoubtedly sustain life in many different forms and an ever-evolving planet. More interestingly, there was already another Entity here. Two, in fact, but one of them wasn't responding and the other simply didn't care to respond.

How rude.

Inquire?

There was no response to be had there, not even when the Entity broadcasted itself to the others.

Information?

Yet again, silence. But it could see that individual Shards from one of the Entities had spit off into the atmosphere, descending down onto the planet below to give its host species new abilities and skills to utilize. Perhaps it wouldn't be so wrong as to snag a few for itself? It only needed to get closer to the planet after all, and there were plenty in the void which it had grabbed for itself which would make it powerful over time. It couldn't help but to wonder exactly the reasoning for this silence after all, usually it was customary to greet each other with simple phrases with intentions laid behind them… Or just end up exchanging Shards without needing to say anything. Or consume each other, really anything was viable.

It soon realized something was very, very wrong with itself.

Problem.

Trying to reach out for attention, it pushed an urgent message towards the other entities and hoped they would provide assistance. The reason for this message was a rather serious case, in the sense that the Entity was slowly drifting towards the planet. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem for an Entity that had a Shard capable of escaping interplanetary atmospheres…

Unfortunately, this Entity had no such shard. Or rather, it had it until they brushed against another Entity nearly 200 years ago and neglected to create another one. It was severely regretting its choices.

Problem!

Once again it tried to reach out to the others. Adding more emphasis on the message on how dire the situation was for this young Entity, as the gravity took hold of its body and slowly started to drag it towards the inhabited planet. They still didn't reply, which was a horrible sign for the Entity that was slowly making its way towards Earth Bet. As it fell towards the earth, desperately it tried to consider options for itself in the ever-shortening time period it had to think for itself. There weren't too many that were appealing, and even more that would require time - time that it didn't have - to work. As it was falling, it did its best to try and capture some of the falling Shards that were passing around itself, brushing against a few and with quick work managed to manipulate them into what other species might call 'Tracking devices' in a rudimentary sense. The others wouldn't know about it, since at this point if it even suggested that itself had manipulated their Shards while it was in a precarious state it could and would end with the Entity's death. One of the Shards passed by it yet again, tenaciously it tried to reach out to it and only barely managed to connect for a brief moment. But that was all it needed.

An Administrator Shard.

It was going to need it to survive, assuming it lost any of its more vital aspects. The gravity was increasing now, and with so little time left it needed to do something to ensure that itself would survive no matter the outcome. So, it changed the Administrator Shard just ever-so-slightly to become part of It's system instead of its brethren. It would find the Shard no matter what, a bargaining chip, outside of his brethren's reach and sight that it had implanted on the Shard. Better to be weakened and hidden than to be out in the open without a chance of recuperating losses… Or risk death.

Finally, an avatar which needed to be cobbled together from spare information taken from various Shards it had pegged to learn from. Humanoid, two legs, binary reproduction system - everything that would be essential to blend in and recover. This being would receive the most vital parts of its form, capable of recovering disconnected Shards from its system that belonged to the Entity. In a final act before being fully committed to the atmosphere and forced to break apart all its shards in the process, they hid all the Shards that they were capable of handling to be diversely spread throughout the host planet to slowly come back to the primary being. Well, slow relative to its host sense of time. A mere few months with a generous boost to start, would be nothing for him in the long term. They had also subjected themselves to try to land as close as possible near the Administrator Shard, so that perhaps they would reclaim it for themselves in the future with the option of simply copying it instead. Whatever the case may be, the Entity had forced themselves across a singular planet down to its bare essentials to live all contained within a created copy of the host species so they would not permanently be lost forever. Well… As the humans sarcastically put it, on the bright side it wouldn't have to worry about expending too much energy anymore. Not for a while anyways. That was its final thought before it had transferred itself to the Being.

This was going to hurt.

Somewhere, within the town of Brockton Bay awakens a new unknown. A teen, 17 years old with a mop of blonde hair and a scraggly frame. Besides the physical build, one would have called them the poster child for Empire 88 with his Caucasian nature and looks complete with shimmering blue eyes hidden beneath closed eyelids. But beyond this, there is no history, no previous appearance, simply there as if they were plucked and placed on the ground.

And then they awoke.

Gasping through his lungs, the kid finally opened his eyes. And saw the town looming above them and blue skies above, something tickling at the back of his mind telling him he belonged up there…

It's just a shame he just so happened to wake up in the Docks where ABB members were patrolling before his instincts flared up and told him 'Run'.

AN : Greetings everyone, Clonedude here! My first story, based on a series I've been keenly interested in! Admittedly, I haven't gotten too far. But I'm willing to try my hand at the universe. Please, do let me know if I'm doing a decent job in the future. Every comment helps.

Welp, see you lads next time! (Whenever that is)