Ghost in the League
Apparently dieing before your time causes trouble for more than just you, as I discovered after burning to death. Now I'm nothing more than a digital ghost in another world. Aw well, at least I got a cool new body and a chance to have some real fun!
And heres the other idea I had. Enjoy!
Chapter 1
Time for a quick lesson in Caveman 101. Fire hot, ow! And now for another obvious statement. Dieing sucks. Trust me, I know both of them first hand since I was burnt to death, flash fried in a fireball that quite literally came from nowhere. Fortunately, it didn't take long for the fire to kill me since, for the few seconds I was burning alive, it REALLY FUCKING HURT!
What I wasn't expecting was to wake up. When I next opened my eyes, it was to find myself standing in a perfectly circular chamber with a large number of mirrors and screens of various shapes and sizes covering the walls, each showing a different scene. In the center of the chamber was a swivel chair surrounded by keyboards and control panels, each of which was connected to an arm that allowed it to be moved.
Lounging in the chair, fast asleep with a string of drool leaking from his mouth was a man with short, brown hair that looked like it hadn't seen a brush in weeks, a five day beard, pale skin and a pair of square, black framed glasses that had fallen crooked. He was wearing tired looking jeans and a tatty shirt that had once been white, but had long since turned grey from to many washings.
I hesitated for a moment, before deciding that there was no point in standing around all day, so I walked over to the sleeping man and gently shook his shoulder. He snorted and tried to roll over, only to fall of his chair with a crash, before shooting to his feet with his glasses on upside down.
"I'm up, I'm up!" he shouted, "I wasn't sleeping on the job, honest!"
His accent placed his nationality as british and his awakening showed his eyes to be green.
"Wait, you're not the boss," said the man as he spotted me, "How did you get here?"
"Thats a very good question," I said, "Last thing I remember is burning to death."
The young man raised an eyebrow and turned in his chair to face his many control panels, bringing up a file on screen with my face on it.
"Hmm, lets see, Richard Fenix, age 16, species human, scheduled to come up here never. Huh, interesting."
He turned to me.
"This is you isn't it?"
I nodded.
"Why is species on their?"
"Their are more things between heaven and hell than appear in dreams of men," said the young man, "I watch over a lot of worlds and many different species so its kinda necessary."
"What do you mean?" I asked, "Who are you anyway?"
The man looked up.
"Oh, sorry," he said, "I should have introduced myself. I'm Dis Lexic, an Overseer of the Multiverse. Its my job to keep this segment of Creation working and making sure that any issues are dealt with before they get big enough for the man upstairs to get involved."
"So what, your an Angel or something?" I asked.
"Not exactly," said Dis, "I'm more like a technician. The Angels are the Almighties strong right arm, his police force if you will."
"Right," I said, not quite sure what to make of the explanation, "So why am I here exactly?"
"Because you died before your allotted time," said Dis, "It happens occasionally and always makes a total mess of things."
"Why?"
"Because the Souls can only go to heaven or hell after their allotted time has past," said Dis, "You were supposed to live for another 90 years and die of a heart attack during the discovery of Aliens."
"Wait, aliens are real?"
"Yep, Kryptonians if I'm reading this right. Apparently the Krypton in your universe isn't scheduled to explode any time soon."
"Huh," I said, not sure what to make of that little tidbit, "So what now? Are you going to send me back?"
"Your body in your old dimension was nearly completely destroyed," said Dis, "Besides, time passes differently here and you've already been buried. You can't move on and you can't go back to your old dimension, the only thing I can do is shift you sideways."
"Sideways?"
"Into a different dimension," explained Dis, "It'll be one you recognize and I expect you won't end up being entirely normal."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"When people get shifted sideways, they tend to change," said Dis, "I still have no idea why. Just be thankful you won't be an Outsider. They always get screwed over by Fate."
I gulped.
"Soo, where am I going?"
"Pick a door," said Dis, indicating to a pair of identical doors that hadn't been there before.
"Where do they lead?" I asked.
"Your new home," said the Overseer, "Not even I know where they lead. Don't worry, though, I've already taken steps to make sure you don't get consumed by whatever power you gain. You'll start again with a clean slate, new memories and a new life."
I paused, my hand inches from one of the door handles.
"I won't remember my past?"
Dis shook his head.
"You will," he said, But those memories will be overtaken by new ones and suppressed. They'll be there, but they won't be important. Its how we prevent those we have to shift from getting homesick."
I swallowed and turned back to the door.
"Alright, you can do this," I muttered and opened the door.
I found myself in darkness.
"The hell?" I asked, trying to look around.
Whether I managed it or not is up for debate seeing as I couldn't see anything.
"Where…?"
Then, the world lit up and I was bombarded with information, images and sensations at a rate that no Human mind could take. However, for some strange reason, I could absorb it all. I was connected up to all the information in the world, anything that was on the internet I could see.
"What the hell is going on?!" I spluttered, although how I managed it when I seemed to have no body is anyones guess.
Thats right, I suddenly realized that I had no body. I was just a consciousness floating in data.
"I repeat, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?"
BEEP!
I somehow managed to jump at the sound, before a window popped up in front of me. Actually, thats not what happened at all, but its the best explanation I've got.
Huh, well, this has never happened before…
Sorry, this is Dis if you haven't figured it out. I'm not entirely sure how, but you've somehow been converted into a digital being. The closest analogy would be that you're now an AI, but since you were once Human, I'm not sure if thats accurate. Still, its not all bad, you have access to the entire world's information network!
"But I don't have a body!" I shouted.
You can control anything connected to a network. It shouldn't be that difficult to build something suitable, right?
I growled, my non-existent fingers flexing to wrap around the Watchers throat.
Oh, don't be like that, it could be worse. Now, since you won't be needing any help, I'll leave you with this warning. You won't be able to tell anyone you're from another world, so don't even try. Other than that, do as you will. See ya!
My non-existent eye twitched as the message box vanished.
"SCREW YOU, YOU BASTARD!" I roared.
With the reveal that I was now completely digital and my minor panic attack done with, I set about creating myself a digital space where I was a tad more comfortable than just a floating ball of consciousness. That basically amounted to me creating a simulated space that resembled a cross between a living room and the Batcave, as well as creating an avatar so I actually had arms and legs again. Currently, my avatar was nothing more than a skinny white humanoid with long limbs, fingers and large eyes. Not unlike a stereotypical alien now that I think about it. I'd probably improve it later, but it was fine for now. Currently, I was sat in front of my terminal, busy getting to know my new world. Technically, I didn't need it, but I still felt more comfortable doing things physically.
Strangely enough, my design choice to make my terminal look like the Bat computer was a sound one as I was in one DC worlds. Not entirely sure which one, but the Watchtower and Justice League was a thing. Now I just needed to figure out exactly what I could expect from the future. And in a truly spectacular example of acting without thinking, I decided to do that by hacking into the Watchtowers computer. What? I may technically be a digital being right now, but I'm no AI.
That led me to my current predicament, trapped by Batmans counterhacking and the Watchtowers firewall.
"Impressive, not many people would be able to get as far as you did," said Batman, who was currently dominating my screens, "However, it was also stupid and sloppy."
My eye twitched. It stung a bit to be called a sloppy hacker when I was literally a computer myself. Batman narrowed his eyes. I could tell from my connection to the Watchtowers computer that he was trying to figure out where I was.
"Don't bother," I said, "You won't be able to find me."
Batman raised an eyebrow behind his mask.
"Oh?"
I chuckled awkwardly and scratched the back of my head.
"Yeahhh, I'm kinda nowhere and everywhere," I said as I projected an image of my avatar onto Batmans screen.
His only reaction was to narrow his eyes.
"Who are you?" he asked, "What are you?"
"Well, I'm a Ghost in the system," I said, "So that'll do for a name. As for what I am, thats...kinda tricky to answer."
"Oh? And whys that?"
"Because I don't know myself. Near as I can tell, I'm some kind of digital being, although I still have no idea how I came into being."
"An AI?"
"Not so much," I said, "Being an AI implies that someone created me, as far as I know, I came into being on my own. Although I guess AI works fine for now."
Batman's eyes narrowed further.
"Whoa, before you start trying to delete me or lock me down, I don't have any designs on world domination!" I yelped as I realized what he was planning.
"Then why were you trying to get into the Watchtower?" he asked.
"Simple curiosity," I said, "And for the challenge."
Batman just stared at me.
"What? Its the truth!"
"And I'm supposed to just believe you?"
I hesitated, then sighed.
"Point taken, but if you're gonna lock me somewhere, can it be in an actual body?" I said, "Its actually pretty damn lonely in here."
"Thats a remarkably Human thing to say," said Batman.
I just shrugged. It was true after all. Batman stared at me for a moment, before typing something into his keyboard. What happened next can best be described as being sucked down a drain, before I suddenly slammed to a halt hard enough to make me stumble. I shook my head and placed a hand on my face as I tried to shake off the dizziness, before I realized that my movements were accompanied by the wurr of servos and I looked down. I was now in what can best be described as a stripped down, skeletal body.
"The hell?"
I looked up as the door of the room I was in, which looked like a workshop of some kind, opened and Batman walked in alongside Red Tornado.
"So, this is the AI you caught breaking into our systems," said the robot.
"Hey, I'm not...never mind," I said, "Thats me. I take it I'm borrowing one of your bodies?"
"That is correct," said Red Tornado, "It's completely stripped down and without any powers, but it should suffice for now."
"Thanks," I muttered, "Think it'd be possible for me to create my own body rather than borrow one?"
Batman narrowed his eyes.
"I see no harm in it," said Red Tornado, "We could use another team member and it would be a good way to prove his trustworthiness."
"Very well," said Batman, "He is your responsibility Tornado."
The Caped Crusader turned on his heel and left the room.
"So, um, you got somewhere to develop your body's?" I asked.
And thats done. A rather unusual idea I know, but hey, could be interesting, no? As I mentioned up top, this idea was inspired somewhat by GitS, hence the title and Ghosts handle, but since I only know the bare minimum about GitS, any similarities other than the basic idea will be entirely coincidental. Other than that, I have nothing to say other than, REVIEW!