Disclaimer: I own nothing of the DC Universe.

I would like to remind my readers this story is rated M for a reason.

The classroom was full of loud children sitting in their seats talking to themselves, each other, eating their snacks, generally just being kids. None of the teachers were paying attention to the five-year-old sitting at his desk staring at the wall deep in thought. The teachers had many students to keep an eye on and one astonishing well behaved student was a blessing to them.

Abilo was grateful for their lack of focus on him. It was hard enough to think in a room with a bunch of children and being forced to do elementary school level work at best. It gave him room to think about the future.

So what makes a hero a hero?

A hero was an individual who through their blood, sweat and tears made the world a better place for people. They were the people who would face the threats other, more sane people would avoid for no other reason than because it was the right thing.

They cared about everyone around them.

Abilo was no hero.

The thought repeated in his head as he sat in his seat. Abilo could admit to himself he was not the type of person to risk life and limb for any random person. If it was a family member or a close friend, then outright murder was on the table. If it was a random guy, he saw on the street then he would stand back and call the cops or if he was literally the only person around then he would help that person.

He was no psychopath; he just didn't feel the need to leap into deadly situations if he has no personal stake in it.

If that made him a terrible person, then so be it. Abilo always believed most of the people who waxed poetically about how they would stand up and fight back against oppression were liars anyway.

He wasn't a hero or villain just a normal person who wanted to survive and thrive in the universe. If he was to make that far a plan would be required to get him to that point. He looked down at the piece of paper in front of him.

Survive

Gain power in a way which doesn't backfire on me.

Obtain dependable allies

Gather super equipment for myself and allies

Protect Earth

It wasn't a bad plan to start with, it would be updated as needed but now it was all he had to go on.

The first part was easy. He was already alive and capable of interacting with the world. He could die and likely would if he didn't become powerful enough to fight off the threats from every possible angle. The only people who got to come back to life where the heroes, villains, and the supporting characters of the heroes unless their death gave the hero something to get angry and sad over to make them better heroes.

Of course, given the nature of the universe he could possibly exist as a spirit and find a way to get back to life. It wasn't really an option he was willing to consider given how it relied far too much on chance.

Of course, not of it mattered if he didn't have power at all. A man without power was nothing but a tool for the powerful to use at their leisure.

So how to gain power?

Magic was incredibility useful and possessed many advantages, but he wasn't sure how to obtain it in a safe way. The world had plenty of gods, artifacts, and people capable of giving him magical powers but almost all of them were difficult to reach, were highly unlikely to just give him powers unless he jumped through a bunch of ridiculous hoops, and the biggest issue was if Abilo even had the ability to use magic at all. He had never been interested in the magical side of the DC Universe very much, now that he inhabited it, he wished he had paid more attention to it.

He could try using a powerful tool to use but all of them had the obvious weakness of leaving him powerless if someone worked out how to take it from him.

The easiest method for him was science. He had been an average student the first time around but the threat of being killed or wiped from existence would be enough to motivate him to greatness. He would have to abandon half or more of the principles he already knew of course as they didn't allow comic book science to exist. He'd study his ass off then discover a way to give himself superpowers.

hell, he might already have superpowers via the metagene. He just needed to test for it without anyone discovering what he was up to, better to be under the radar as long as possible. Once he had powers, he would focus on getting magic. In the meantime, along the way he would find a way to be immortal, Abilo loved life and wanted to experience everything to the fullest. He had no intention of going to heaven or hell where he would be at the mercy of the many supernatural assholes that inhibited them in this fictional universe.

He sat back in his chair looking at the roof with a smile. He was going to survive his new world and make it his own. He stayed in the position for a few minutes then brought his thoughts back to the future.

Even with power he would need allies. The Justice League was proof having the right people in your corner can help you overcome greater enemies one person couldn't defeat, even superman needed the League at times. The problem was finding the right people who would support his goals. It would be easier if everything and everyone around him was still characters in a book but that was then and now people Abilo had regarded as such were real life people. He would have to be careful in dealing with people.

Even when he had ultimate power and allies, he would need to gather up all the potentially dangerous stuff practically lying around for just about anyone to pick up and use against him to either destroy or use himself.

Nth Metal

The Cosmic Rod

The Central Power Batteries

The Spear of Destiny

The Mobius Chair

The Helmet of Fate

There was a lot of dangerous tools out there that Abilo had no intention of letting fall into the hands of someone who might use it against him. They had to be either locked away, in his possession or destroyed to stop them from being a threat to his existence.

Once he was immortal and had all the power in the universe to the point, to the point of being capable of bitch slapping the Anti-Monitor he would need something to occupy the rest of existence with and protecting earth was a good one. He really didn't have an intention of going off in space because he knew what was out there and earth was his home in both lives.

He was attached to the place.

He had no intention of being just a random individual living in some apartment answering to the whims of a landlord or whatever laws a politician wrote to support his voting base. He wanted to be powerful for all to see and understand what would happen if they threatened him or his stuff.

He wanted to be in charge and rule the world.

The thought made him pause a second. He originally planned to just gain power for himself but there was no chance he wouldn't face opposition from villains who wouldn't want his power for themselves or attempt to use him for their own dark purposes. The solution was simple, most of them would have to die. The thought of killing another living person would have disgusted him in his past life but in his new one he had far less reservations.

He had looked up one night while his parents were sleeping on the supervillains of the world, and it made him want to vomit. It was one thing to see dead people because of some supervillain's rampage, but it was another to see the bodies of children burned beyond recognition by the joker because of one of his sick games.

That psychopath would die, along with pretty much ninety percent of all supervillains. There was no good reason for letting monsters continue to commit their actions simply because they had a rough life or could potentially change for the better.

It would cause conflict with the heroes, but Abilo was fine with it. He would hold off the inevitable conflict as much as possible, but he would be ready when they came after him in the name of "Justice". If they were willing to work with him then all the better, if not they would be removed from the board.

Even with the heroes and villains there were countless other players who would stand in his way, so he was prepared to deal with all of them. Many might be good people who didn't deserve to die but Abilo valued his life more than anyone else's life.

"How are you Abilo?"

Abilo look up to see Ms. Santos standing over him. Ms. Santos was the best teacher at the school in his opinion. She was polite, friendly and knew her stuff well enough to make it fun to kids. Her best quality was she didn't take down to her students. She treated them and Abilo like regular people with minds of their own.

"I'm doing okay, Ms. Santos. Thanks for asking."

"I've noticed that you don't seem to associate with any of the other students. Is everything okay?"

Another reason Abilo liked her was she cared about her students outside of their schoolwork. He had seen her talk to students when they were feeling bad or just needed someone to talk to about their day.

" Yeah, I'm fine. I just don't really have any friends on my level."

None of Abilo's fellow students were unpleasant to him, it was just difficult to form meaningful bonds with children when he was a grown man in a child's body.

Ms. Santos didn't respond, just looking at him with an understanding look. She had discovered almost immediately his adult mindset and understood Abilo's situation.

"Well, there are plenty of other ways to make friends. Have you tried talking to people outside of school or considered joining some youth groups? You might meet some like-minded people there."

He hadn't, mostly because he was avoid losing his mind at being a child again, thinking of ways to obtain power for himself and spending time with his family. He couldn't say that as he wanted to avoid landing on anyone's radar. He knew much of his new home and didn't want to be kidnapped and tortured for information.

Knowledge was power after all.

"Thank you, Ms. Santos I will consider it."

"That's all I ask" The woman nodded and walked off to talk to another student.

"Ms. Santos, look outside!" someone Abilo didn't know shouted, pointing to the window.

Everyone including Abilo rushed to the window, trying to get a better view of what was happening. Outside, they saw a group of what spaceships could only be hovering in the sky near the center of the city. The ships were black and shaped like blocks. They seemed to be floating silently in the air, almost as If they were waiting for something.

The classroom fell into a stunned silence as the students and Ms. Santos tried to process what they were seeing. They had heard of aliens like superman and the green lantern, but it was another to see such things in person. They were witnessing something that had always seemed like a phenomenon in another part of the world. Most of the students were excited and curious even Ms. Santos. Abilo was also curious but concerned far more. He couldn't recall any alien invasion event that happened in Brazil.

As the classroom continued to stare out the window, the ships suddenly shot out what looked like some sort of cloud below it. The cloud quickly started expanded in every direction, even toward them. As it got closer the cloud started shooting yellow beams destroying everything. One of the beams hit a car parked across from the school and it exploded.

Ms. Santos quickly regained her composure.

"Students away from the window! Get under your desks now!"

Her voice was firm and commanding causing every student including Abilo to follow her instructions to the letter.

Abilo watched the window and incoming cloud as he tried to rattle his brain on what to do in his situation. He was a kid with no special abilities, just a lot of comic book knowledge that he currently couldn't use to help himself.

As the cloud came closer Abilo could finally make out the details of it. There was no mistaking what they were and who they served, parademons.

The hell?

What were they doing in Brazil?

The questions ringing through his head were stopped by Abilo witnessing the parademons reaching the school, one of them coming straight at the window and busting straight through it. The glass fragments flew everywhere, scattering across the room and hitting some of the children.

Abilo couldn't help but join the rest of the kids in screaming in panic on what just happened.

Ms. Santos on the other hand wasted no time and sprang into action. She grabbed a stack of papers from her desk and threw it into the monster's face, trying to blind it. but the monster was too quick, and it swiped at the papers before they could reach its face. It then moved to Ms. Santos at the front of the room, swiping the desk out if its way to reach the teacher.

Ms. Santos then grabbed her metal chair and swung it at the creature, hitting it squarely in the head. It gave no indication the blow registered at all. It knocked the chair out of Ms. Santos hands and grabbed her neck. Ms. Santos landed punch after punch of the creature as if not noticing the hand on her throat. The creature then snapped the middle-aged woman's neck with a loud crack and tossed her body in the corner. It then turned to face the classroom of children.

Abilo had always believed when confronted with real life danger he would react with courage and be dismissive of the threat. He would be like all the other self-inserts and easily defeat the bad guys.

Instead, he felt the complete opposite, terrified to his bones, unable to move, looking straight up at the parademon. The thing was at least eight feet tall, had razor sharp teeth, two giant wings like a bat and was covered in gold armor. It wore goggles over its bright glowing yellow eyes giving the whole a menacing otherworldly look. The most terrifying part was its sharp claws which looked like blades that could easily cut Abilo in half if he wasn't careful enough.

What really stood out was the sheer heat radiating off it. Abilo was on the other side of the room and could feel the heat like it was a thousand degrees on his face.

Neither Abilo, his fellow students or the parademon moved for several seconds. The kids shocked at what just happened and the parademon taking in its new environment.

Then it rushed towards them.

It moved so fast Abilo was barely able to see it. it grabbed Sabrina, a five-year-old who always had a smile on her face and loved nature, by the arm and in one motion smashed her against the wall and threw her corpse into the middle of the room. Blood went everywhere hitting all of all of us shocked students.

Then the situation hit all of us and panic consumed us. Everyone started running around trying to avoid the monster.

Abilo couldn't help but stand there unable to move out of fear. The movies and comics made parademons look like easily defeated cannon fodder, something for the heroes to defeat with a barely any effort. The monster right in front of him looked was an unstoppable killing machine.

Closer to the creature six -year-old Fabrizia tried to hide behind the teacher's desk only for the parademon to knock it out its way and look down on her.

"Please don't hurt me" she barely managed to say through her tears.

It didn't move for a few seconds as if it was considering her request only to grip her head in its enormous fist ignoring her screams then slamming her head against the floor.

Then again

And again

By the third time the rest of Fabrizia's body fell to the ground as her head no longer existed. The parademon then turned to face the crowd of screaming children.

Abilo's fear had turned to flight, and he immediately turned to run out the door only to see the only way out blocked by desks and pieces of the wall. His heart pounded in his chest as he raced to the door and started desperately trying to move the stuff. He focused all his attention on the task in front of him trying and failing to avoid looking at the tragedy behind him. he could hear the sickening sounds of flesh being torn, bones being crushed, and the screams of kids. Nothing was stopping the creature from killing everyone in its path.

The screams died down the closer he got to clearing the door. He finally cleared the way but before he could touch the handle, he was forced to turn around by the parademon.

The sight before him looked like a warzone. He could see the bodies scattered across the floor, their limbs twisted and mangled, blood covered everything and in front of him was the creature.

It was staring at him right in the eyes, its eyes glowing with a malevolent light. Its hot breath hitting Abilo's face like the steam from an oven. Abilo heart felt like it was going to explode, and he could feel the tears running down his face. He knew what he should do, run, or fight but his limbs felt heavy and uncooperative.

He was too frightened out of his mind.

The monster reached out and Abilo could feel both his life's flashing before his eyes. Despite knowing it would do nothing he tried to scream, but his throat was dry and hoarse. He was going to die.

He knew it would do no good, but he couldn't help it "Please don't kill me. Please don't kill me."

The creature tiled its head and just looked at Abilo.

It then smiled, showing all its razor sharp teeth before raising its hand to strike him.

o-o-o-o-o

They were displeased.

Their chosen agent had been given a second chance to continue its existence and had so far proven not to be up to the task.

They were now forced to intervene for their agent and in the process, they would inform him of his purpose and the consequences of failure.

A couple things I want to let my readers now.

This story doesn't strictly follow any one universe. It's mostly the main one with elements from other universes I thought were good.

Second is just because Abilo has the greater knowledge from being a self-insert character doesn't mean everything would go the way he thinks it would from reading comics. An example is while parademons are often cannon fodder for the heroes to mow down with ease in most comics here he is confronted with the "reality" sort of speak that parademons are the extremely dangerous shock troops of the God of Tyranny.

The road to ultimate power is long and treacherous and a single misstep could cause Abilo to suffer and die.

Third is Abilo isn't perfect. I try to write him with misunderstandings and blind stops. He is going to make decisions readers will support, be neutral on and some you will outright hate him for making in his path to power.