1,2&3

Movies had given me the wrong impression of what death and dying was like. By the time I had realized that, however, my world had been swallowed by darkness.

No "oh shit" moment in a split second that seemed to drag on forever as I realized my onrushing doom, reality itself didn't freeze as the lethal blow landed and I certainly didn't get any time for a monologue of a tearful goodbye.

A flash of teeth as something erupted out of the water just as I was leaning over the side of the boat to grab a fish of the hook, then … I wasn't even sure what had killed me. Some kind of animal, obliviously, but I hadn't had the chance to tell even that much.

And that led me to my current situation, floating in a dark void as distant stars twinkled. Was this the afterlife? Were those stars the portals to the various places where one could spend one's eternity? Other lost souls?

… I wouldn't get any answers to those questions any time soon, would I?

I don't know how long I floated there, curled up in a fetal position, but eventually, something snaped me out of it.

I wasn't sure what, at the time. Something had changed, but what? The human mind could subconsciously notice small changes with extreme effectiveness but wasn't always the best at communicating what with the conscious mind.

But a few minutes later, that point was moot as the thing came closer. It flitted around me, faster than I could turn my head to follow. Glimpses of arachnid claws, scales, horns, two different tails … were there more than one of them?

Suddenly, without warning, the being came to a stop right in front of my face, grinning impishly. A young woman hovered in front of me, her skin shimmering with scales in places, shifting into hard carapace in others. The last of her tails retracted under long flowing robes as she began to speak.

"You are likely wondering what is happening. The answer is simple. You died. Shark attacks might be extraordinarily rare, but five fatal shark attacks a year still means that five people got killed and you had the distinct misfortune to be one of them.

Unlike most of the others, you happen to get another chance. You see, I am one of the guardians of nature in this vast multiverse. We attempt to preserve species, make sure they can be brought back in case of disaster. Some are ordinary animals like you know from your own home, other fantastical beings of myth and legend.

And I've recently discovered the perfect vessel to keep them safe. Human. Souls.

The soul is almost inviolable and can be made truly eternal with but a tiny gift of my power.

Then there are certain souls capable of using magic and other powers, like yours. If you had been born elsewhere, you might have become a great mage, but sadly, your Earth is entirely devoid of mystical energy. That being said, this means I can store the information necessary for recreating animal species in it. Once …"

"Wait." I interrupted her for the first time "This is my soul we're talking about. I'm not entirely sure I should be letting anyone mess with it, I …"

"For this, you will receive three boons.

The first is that I will return you to life.

The second is that you will be able to summon the creatures I have imprinted and they will follow your orders.

The third is that, when you die again, this service rendered will be viewed most favorably by other beings. The kind of beings who can get you into a glorious afterlife or revive you once. more, whatever you desire.

Furthermore, I will help you in your new life, set you up well, give you some valuable skills."

"Wait, new life?"

"You died." she deadpanned "Simply reviving you would result in certain entities becoming … irritated with the both of us.

You will start out with one being that you can summon, but as you grow as a person, I will add more. Questions?"

It seemed like she took it for granted that I would say yes. Granted, what she was offering was fantastic … dammit, I would say yes, wouldn't I?

"How do I grow as a person? Scrub flaws, be a good Samaritan, what?"

She laughed. Laughed.

"That is not what I meant. New experiences, go out and do things. These thing grow your soul, filling it with memories, knowledge, experience."

"What exactly should I do though? I …"

"It's simple. Imagine yourself as the protagonist in a story. If you do something that would be written down and included in said story, it likely counts, things usually left out, like bathroom breaks, usually don't.

Now, did you say you accept?"

I clenched my fists so hard my hands would likely have started bleeding if I were still alive. This thing was so incredibly rude. I supposed she was powerful enough that few could tell her off for her behavior, but still. Ruuuuuudeee.

"Yes. I accept your generous offer." I ground out through clenched teeth.

"Very well. I took the liberty of adding some resistance to scrying effect, you might need that where you're going. And please, do clean up the place a bit if you have the chance. Worlds like that might be dime a dozen but loosing that many at once is still annoying. Wish I could help, but …" she shrugged a "what can you do" shrug, then slammed her palm into chest.

Agony exploded from the point of impact, seeping into every part of my body as I was flung backwards. Even as I flew, information coalesced in my mind.

My new, my first animal companion was something called a Flickerbat. Virtually invisible, maybe a meter long and utterly alien.

I grinned despite the pain. That was soooo cooooool.

At some point, an invisible barrier tore as I hit it, depositing me straight into hip deep water.

I came up spluttering.

"Scheiße. SCHEIßE! Scheiße. Scheiße. Scheiße." … I'm hardly the most creative with my swearwords, I'll cop to that.

It was at that point that I realized I was standing at the bottom of a pier and did, in fact, have an audience. Several people were leaving, parents dragging their children away.

One man, bald, wearing a leather jacket, climbed down a ladder and offered me his hand, pulling me up so I could grab the edge of the pier and get up top.

"Danke."

"You're welcome." he replied in a surprisingly respectful tone "You need help getting home?"

"Thank you, but I can take a taxi. I don't want to bother you any more than I already have."

I replied, effortlessly switching to English, paused for a moment, then turned back with a burning question, or at least a roundabout way of asking it

"How many people saw me slip? I really hope no one saw that or, God forbid, recorded it."

He chuckled "Nah, there was a street magician everyone was watching, then SPLASH and you started swearing."

"That's something at least. Have a nice evening."

Thankfully, no one had seen me falling, so I wasn't immediately outed as "weird". I began to look through my pockets, looking for anything that could give me information. Not the pants I had been wearing before I had … died. Man, that was weird to think about.

A brand new pair of, now sodden, pair of hiking pants with several large pockets. In other words, exactly what I liked to wear. In one pocket, I found a phone of unfamiliar make, thankfully in a waterproof case. Either my exit point was predetermined and the entity was careful, or this had been deliberate, and the entity was an ass.

In another pocket, I found a keyring, including a car key for a Mercedes, though I couldn't tell the particular model and a key that looked like it belonged to an apartment's of house's front door, in yet another, a wallet. The exact pockets I usually kept them in. That was one hell of a mindfuck.

Reaching into the wallet, I pulled out a sodden piece of paper.

It read: Congratulations on your new home. All additional pieces of identification are located on the dining room table in your house, the address in on the back of this note, cash for a taxi in the wallet. Welcome to Brockton Bay!

"Scheiße" I muttered as I glanced after the retreating man, no, skinhead, I corrected myself.

With all the craziness that had happened in the last hour, I had become numb to the insanity that my life had become. Well, temporarily. Hopefully, I'd be home when I realized how utterly fucked I was and had a nervous breakdown.

This was Brockton Bay, Neo-Nazi capital of America. Me swearing in German had obviously made it seem like I was a member of E88, at least that skinhead had though so.

As a German, that would likely be the first assumption people made about me if they found out. The one ray of hope was that I did not have what most people thought of as a German accent. I hadn't actually been born in Germany and I'd learned English from my father, who'd taught me with the help of Hollywood movies because the German school system sucked when it came to teaching that particular language. That, and the fact that most people's idea of a German accent was a Nazi era "I learned English from a book and I pronounce everything phonetically using German pronunciation" butchering of the English language.

I'd definitely stick to English whenever possible.

After walking a few hundred meters to the taxi stand, squelching with every step, I got a taxi home. By now, I was bloody freezing. It had been midsummer when I'd … died, but either it was a different time of year here or Brockton Bay was naturally cold.

Brockton. Bay. I was in Brockton friggin Bay. I yanked myself out of that spiral of depression and fear. Now, get home, breakdown, later.

Could I even survive here? I had no idea what beings I would eventually be able to command. Maybe I could eventually beat the gangs of even Endbringers, myself, but I doubted it. The gangs, maybe, but Endbringers were some of the deadliest being in fiction. Maybe, maybe I'd get something that would let be strike directly at their cores, but that would be blind luck. I swore softly, earning an odd glance from the cabbie.

Eventually, I got home. There was a deep azure Mercedes in the driveway. Not a luxury vehicle, but a working-class vehicle from Germany. Over here, BMW and Mercedes were all fancy limousines, but back home? They made all kinds of cars. In fact, I think this was the exact kind of car my late grandfather had. I chuckled at the memory.

I entered the unfamiliar space slowly, marching onwards with caution. The ground floor was a combined kitchen-living room, the two only separated by a low balustrade. The first floor held three empty rooms and a bathroom, whilst the top floor, under the sloped roof, was a fully furnished bedroom and held another bathroom and shower. I shrugged out of the sodden, freezing clothes, took a quick shower and collapsed onto the bed.

A few minutes later, my eyes snapped open. I couldn't sleep. I was mentally and emotionally exhausted, but I was also wide awake. Shit.

As I lay there in bed wide awake, my thought turned down paths I'd been avoiding with all my might, until now at least.

Worm. "FOR FUCKSSACKE" I yelled "FUCKING WORM!!! You said reborn, not sent into hell itself you jackass! I …" I broke off with a sob "I don't want to die again. FUCK YOU"

Hot tears began to stream down my cheeks.

"Why? WHY? What the hell is your game you sadistic fuck? Fuck!"

My monologue only deteriorated from there, swearing, accusations, crying interspersed with more swearing and yelling.

Eventually, I collapsed backwards, even more drained and exhausted, face red and wet with tears.

Fine. There were a million ways this could go horribly for me, but maybe it wouldn't. I had an absurd amount of metaknowledge and an entire roster powerful beasts just waiting to be unlocked. Well, maybe. it wasn't one hundred percent certain, but very likely.

You want me to clean up this world? Well, fuck you, but fine. I'd try. Get rid of the Endbringers, Scion, the Slaughterhouse 9 … the S9. Jack Slash. Cannot be beaten by Parahumans, protected by a projection of unstoppable force called the Siberian … but I wasn't a Parahuman and, as a Master myself, I might be able to snipe both him and Manton. Hopefully, maybe, possibly, theoretically. But I had a chance. Against them, I had a chance,

But before I did anything else, I needed more of everything. Resources, summons, allies, everything. But all that could wait. I was finally getting tired. I rolled over, closed my eyes, and fell asleep a few minutes later.

It was dark when I woke up. The streetlights let a little light through the window, but it was very clearly still in the middle of the night. However, I was wide awake and there was no way in hell I was going to fall asleep again.

Worm. It still hadn't sunk in properly. I had never read more fanfiction or thought more about writing fanfiction for any other series. I should be happy to be here, in this place that had so captured my imagination, but … Worm.

Sure, superpowers, buuuuuuut … the worst Grimdark can throw at you

On top of everything else that had happened, I had even completely forgotten about was the fact that I had powers. Freakin Superpowers.

Granted, all it had taken was the worst and last day of my life and it wasn't enough to prevent me from raging at the mere thought of what had happened, but it was a distraction.

I could now summon a near invisible, dog sized bat from an alien planet. A friggin alien. Hah.

And to top it all off, I was now blessed with a new skillset. Hunting. A few of my roommates hunted, showing up with triumphant grins and filling half the freezer with venison.

Granted, I was a city kid who still lived in a city, so I likely wouldn't get much use out of it, but still cool. I grinned. Knowledge about tracking, trapping, killing and proper harvesting flashed through my mind.

Also, my other power begged to be tried out.

"Summon: Flickerbat" I declared authoritatively, fully aware that I did not need to and looked like an idiot, but I liked Anime, sue me.

The creature manifested in front of me. It roughly resembled a Manta Ray, wings beating like a Colibris' to keep it in the air. "Go invisible" I ordered, and it complied, flickering in and out for a few seconds, then fully disappearing and being replaced by a faint heat haze.

"Whoho, I am the greatest man alive!" I laughed.

This was awesome. Not worth the situation that came with it, but still awesome.

"You need a name, little guy. Mine's Wyatt and you shall be … Shade. I have named you after a great bat of legend from a book I read as a kid. May you bring honor to your namesake." laughing, I pushed my way of the bed and over to the closet. It was filled with the exact kind of clothing I liked. The same kind of hiking/cargo pants I had arrived in, jeans, monocolored T-Shirts, a grey rain jacket of the exact type I had at home, a few polo shorts for more formal occasions, a full set of formal ware … and a pair of sweatpants. I grabbed those, some underwear, a tee-shirt, and a pair of slippers.

A few minutes later, I sat at the kitchen table, Shade perched on the back of the chair opposite me, while I checked out my documents.

I owned my house and car outright, had a fair bit of money saved up and a few shares of various companies in the Bay, including Medhall. Friggin den of Nazis Medhall.

Then again, I now had a pet with a Stranger classification that could easily get in there and cause havoc. Screwing with Nazis was always a good deed.

Then again, the ABB had a massive sex trafficking ring and the Merchants conducted rape parties. Or at least they would after Leviathan. How fucked up did a city have to be that the Neo-Nazi gang didn't hold the title of worst gang by default? I mean, canon Worm saw them killed off before the true depth of their depravity could truly be shown, but the fact that that was even a question was telling.

As I contemplated that, a new existence formed within me. A large deer, large enough to be ridden, in fact. A Crimson Indrik.

I summoned it in the middle of my living room, which, in hindsight, might have been a mistake. It was large, far bigger than any other species of deer I had ever seen. As such, well, its antlers ended up putting holes in the ceiling. That'll teach me. Crap.

All things considered though, it was a magnificent beast, one I was happy to have receive. Now if only it were anywhere but my living room …

Heaving I sigh, I unsummoned it, watching it disappear. Both the summoning and the dismissing were incredibly subtle. One moment, there was nothing there, then there was. Blink and you miss it. That should make subtility far more viable.

Turning back to the stuff on the table, I found a driver's license. I had had one back home, but that one had been a German driver's license. This one was American. Come to think of it … yep, my passport declared my Wyatt Reyes, American citizen.

I bit back a laugh "Here I am, brand new immigrant and I don't even know the pledge of allegiance to the flag. Hope that doesn't come up anytime soon."

Even as I chuckled about this, admittedly, not very funny fact, I felt a new power manifest.

Material Extraction. The ability to summon body parts instead of whole creatures and the knowledge of what to do with them. Dragonscale Mantle, here I come.

Sadly, material summons shared a cooldown with the creatures themselves, and of my two

creatures, one was on cooldown and the other was present, so I'd have to wait.

That was … irritating, but unavoidable. I decided to table any experimentation for the near. future. The massive Indrik would serve me well as an emergency summon that I could keep on hand while the nigh undetectable Flickerbat was perfect for covertly following me. Once I got some more creatures, however, things would be interesting.

I decided to make stock of my kitchen next, check what I had to cook with, what I needed to buy, etc. That being said, I should probably check the date, hell, the year. That was important information. A calendar on the wall of the kitchen informed me of the fact that today was Saturday the 5th​ of March, 2011. Someone had taken the liberty of crossing out days that had already passed. Actually, the wall mounted clock informed me of the fact that it was one in the morning, so Sunday?

Any proper shopping would have to wait till Monday, since the shops were closed on Sunday.

… wait, wasn't that a German thing, shops being closed on Sundays? It was, wasn't it? I really needed to be more mindful of my new circumstances.

Then I began to check the kitchen. I had plenty of plates, pots and pans, silverware I really hoped wasn't actually silver because otherwise polishing would take forever, but no food.

No food at all, not even a bag of rice or flour.

Man, now I was hungry. There should be 7-eleven or the American equivalent around here? Wait, wasn't a 7-eleven an American chain? We didn't have them back in Germany, our overnight convenience stores were normal stores attached to airports, train stations and the like, but I'd used them a lot when I'd been abroad.

I reached for my phone to check, but I couldn't find the right app. The phone itself was a primitive, to my sensibilities at least, smartphone that vaguely resembled one of the original iPhones. Miraculously, I stumbled across my entire music library, including custom playlists, within, weirdly enough not in an app but as another page on my home screen, but no google maps or local equivalent.

Eventually, I just opened the internet app, thankfully it was actually labeled "Internet", not some random other title like "Safari" that you needed to know to identify properly.

The end result was a mundane, non-interactive map with the locations of various stores clearly labeled. I ended up printing it out with a Bluetooth printer I hadn't realized existed until the moment I pulled up the printer tab in the browser.

There was, in fact a 7-eleven near me, so I headed upstairs, got dressed in street clothes, headed out the door, then froze as I locked it behind me.

Heading out in the middle of the night in the worst shithole in the America of a hellworld.

Had dying driven me insane, cost me my intelligence? I hurriedly unlocked the door again, jumped through, slammed it and locked it with both the lock and the deadbolt.

"Don't be an idiot, man. I know you've been living in some of the safest cities in the world, but come on, you're smarter than this." I reminded myself out loud "Think before you act, dammit."

There was only one thing to do, now. Do literally anything else till morning.

After running up and down the stairs, from the basement to the top and back several times, juvenile as that was, getting back into my comfortable sweatpants and flouncing back down on the couch, I decided to do some proper planning.

First, I made a large shopping list consisting of all the basics one always needed to have on hand, sugar, flour, onions, oil, and the like.

Secondly, cape stuff. I needed some kind of plan for the future. If I had been born here, I likely would have tried to become a rouge and stay out of the entire mess that cape life was, but alas, that would only work for another two years before the world ended, and I did with it. I needed to do something. Well, firstly, I needed to make sure Bakuda didn't blow up this city around me, then probably survive Leviathan and then the Nine.

Then, assuming I made it past all that, I would have two years to finish my preparations until Scion went nuts and murdered the world. I wasn't stupid enough to assume that Taylor would just handle it like she had in canon. That had been the cumulation of everything that had happened to her in the past, and simply me being here would, statistically speaking, butterfly away at least one of those, even if I never interacted with any of the named character, I couldn't be sure. Therefore, I had to assume that even the canon pyrrhic victory was not guaranteed even if I never left the house ever again.

My train of though was interrupted by the arrival of yet another new summon. A Frog Squirrel. Frog. Squirrel. It sounded adorable, to adorable to not summon immediately instead of testing Material Extraction. But before I could do so, a power joined it.

Explosive Finish would allow me to detonate my summons on command or set them to do so when they died, with the explosion's power scaling with the creature's size.

I smiled grimly. I'd just gained some much-needed firepower, if in a somewhat distasteful form.

The Frog Squirrel, which I had unimaginatively dubbed Frogger in my head, manifested before me and hopped up on my shoulder, making a weird sound halfway between a squirrel's chittering a frog's ribbit.

I petted it with a smile, then pulled it down into my lap and began to stroke it.

It was as adorable as I had imagined it.

I don't know how long I sat there, petting the surprisingly dry critter, staring of into the distance, thinking of nothing and letting my mind relax.

Eventually though, a loud clatter snapped me out of it. I jumped out of my chair, Frogger flinging himself out of my lap with all the grace and speed of his component animals and landing on the chandelier-esque lamp hanging from the ceiling.

I looked around wildly before spotting the culprit.

My Flickerbat had gone exploring, something I had completely missed given how hard it was to see and knocked over the large standing lamp that had been far to light for it to safely land on.

"Hey, got down from there." I hissed, hoping the neighbors hadn't heard the crash "And cut that out. No landing on furniture."

As Shade hopped of the lamp, I righted it and checked whether it still worked. It did, thankfully, but I really needed to get in the habit of issuing orders like that immediately after summoning. Actually, come to think of it, did I always summon the same creature or was it a different one every time?

I turned back to Shade "The next time I summon you, shake your head, then nod, then shake it again while uncloaked unless there is immediate danger."

"Also, nod if you understood that." I added belatedly.

Shade's head bobbed up and down in ascent, causing me to grin in return. Fantastic.

Now, on to more productive endeavors.

My first and most immediate problem was surviving Bakuda. I'd need to keep a discreet summon on overwatch at all time to avoid a bomb being planted near my house and generally exercise an extreme amount of caution during that period. If it happened.

Taylor would need to capture Lung for that to happen, which it might not, depending on how much I screwed with events.

Shit, what would I do about Taylor? Sure, she was the protagonist of a book written about this place, and surely, she needed help, but she was far from the only one, what made her different?

I knew her story, that's what. I knew what she was going through, the impotent rage of being relentlessly tormented by people you could never hope to strike back against. I'd felt a small part of that back when I'd been in school, but the teachers had been on point and circumstances had conspired so that I even got to punch one of them and get away with it in the end.

I'd gotten out of there. and gotten at least a little payback. She was still stuck in there and I could help with a single phone call to the PRT about their little deviant's extracurricular activities.

… but that would land me in a lot of trouble and alert forces I could not yet face to my existence. She would hold out, I knew that, for just over a month before she went out and got in a fight with Lung. Maybe I could approach her in costume, alert her or something?

"God-fucking-dammit" I muttered as I sat back down at the table. Frogger plopped back down into my lap from the lamp and I resumed the petting.

That was a problem for another day. I had the time to make that decision.

If I survived the mad bomber, however, I still needed to live past Leviathan.

The Endbringer's target had been Noelle, the unfortunate young woman who would soon turn into Echidna. She, I might be able to handle if I got access to a dragon or something and attack her before she could subsume any fliers.

The Endbringer … that fucker had the mass of a moon, hidden in higher dimensions yet still able to strengthen the body, making him utterly invulnerable against anything I or almost any other cape could throw at him. I liked to believe that I would get something that could bypass physical endurance, but even if something like that existed in my future arsenal, what where the chances I'd get it in time for it to be useful?

It seemed careful contemplation seriously helped with personal growth, because yet another monster manifested in my arsenal, and I did mean monster.

It was a being called a Deathgripper, a massive dragon. Nine meters long, not including a scorpion-like tail with a venomous spike at the end, sharp tusks that looked like they could shred flesh with ease and a pair of mantis-like forelimbs that could probably tear a man limb from limb. Definitely not something I could summon indoors, but definitely my new bodyguard in waiting. If I got mugged, those poor idiots would probably piss themselves when they came face to face with him.

Not that I was likely to out myself that easily, I'd probably just give them my wallet, but still, it was a nice thought.

No new power, sadly, but the coolest summon to date, by a long shot. I'd try out the Material Extraction on the Indrik once it was of cooldown, I had a proper combat summon now.

I briefly returned to quiet contemplation, then stopped. There were so many variables after that, the S9 might not even show up, they might have new members, etc., I needed to focus on the immediate problems of Bakuda and Leviathan, past that, I needed to focus on making general plans, ones that did not rely on the assumption that events would follow canon.

Long term, I needed to fight Scion, or have someone else beat him with information I provided. Getting that strong it two years was highly unlikely. That being said, I did know how I could massively delay Gold Morning kicking off. Killing Jack Slash. Eventually, I might even be able pull it off.

He wasn't all that dangerous personally, at least not compared the rest. What did make him dangerous, however, was the secondary Trump/ Master/ Thinker power of the Broadcast Shard. The ability to directly communicate with powers, gaining an advanced warning of attacks as well as subtly influence the wielder. People would decide to go for other targets, imagining them easier, subtly miss … it was a power almost as bullshit as mine, or Eidolon's for that matter. And I bypassed it entirely. Hatchet Face's to, for that matter, but if I was close enough to him for that to matter, I was too damn close in the first place.

Beyond that, I now had enough summons to at least start to consider some tactics.

My Flickerbat was highly effective at aerial surveillance. All I needed was a video camera capable of broadcasting and presto, an excellent way to keep an eye on the bad guys, if I ever decided to go looking, that was. Frogger was highly mobile and could therefore fulfill the same role, but in an indoor setting. Throw in my detonation power and well and the swift form of the as of yet unnamed Indrik, and I could likely blow most targets sky high if I decided to go a route involving collateral damage.

The Deathgripper was going to be my primary combatant if I personally got into a fight, but it was a tad to lethal to use on ordinary people, and most capes for that matter. Still, exceedingly powerful and could kick the ass of many of my lesser future enemies. Add in the intimidation factor …

I couldn't ride him, but I could hop on the Indrik and canter up beside him.

I laughed at that mental image.

By now it was only 4 am. I sighed and bonked my head on the table. The sky had brightened almost imperceptibly, but it was still incredibly dark out.

I grabbed a piece of paper from notepad that, like literally everything else in the in this house, the entity had seen fit to provide, yet was the exact type I used. The house had practically been made for me, including three rooms that I could customize to my heart's content.

Writing up a shopping list did not take long and was followed by a second shopping list for stuff I needed for my cape activities.

I paused briefly, considering what else I may need, then wrote up a third one for furniture.

I had a kitchen table and chair, a couch and a matching table, a bed and dresser, but that was about it.

TV, TV-stand and a game console to relax with was the first thing that came to mind, followed by a kindle or something, if those existed here.

Some more clothes, maybe? I briefly considered grabbing a bottle or two of good whiskey when I went shopping, then shoved that thought to the very back of my mind.

Getting drunk was a shitty coping mechanism, definitely the last one I needed to acquire.

Besides, as unlikely as I was to randomly get attacked at any given time, getting blindsided while shitfaced was probably the very last thing I needed, right ahead of accidentally scratching the car of some Empire asshat.

"All right, calm down." I muttered to myself "No more drinking, you're not touching a drop for the next few years, minimum."

I glanced over at the clock. 4:30 was still way to early. Staying busy in a half empty house was damn hard.

What could I do that would help but also spend a lot of time?

I sighed as I got an idea. I grabbed a measuring stick out of a toolkit I'd seen in the cellar and began to measure the various empty rooms in the cellar so that I could buy fitting furniture when I had the time. This was boring and took seemingly forever, but at least I was doing something. At least until I came across the sauna. I hadn't explored this room before now, but when I entered it, I was stunned. Natural stone walls with rocks sunk into them, giving the impression of some ancient roman bathhouse, at least to be. However, that was not he most shocking thing there, the big arrow pointing to a piece of obsidian in the wall with a sign that read "push me", was. I complied, a hidden door swinging open to reveal a goddamn secret room. A secret room that contained a workbench and a massive array of tool, both surgical and crafting related. Several medieval style swords and other weapons hung on the wall, including several bows I could now use expertly.

"My fucking house comes with a freakin secret workshop." I thrust my hands in the air "AWESOME"

It was at just this moment that yet another being joined my menagerie, a strong, fast and tough creature called a metal slime, about the size of, roughly a cubic meter in size. I'd summon him later, but he would do fantastically in a fight.

I spent the rest of the night looking over the stuff in the room, then headed up and out the house to drive my new car for the first time.

----

As I walked out of the door, I spotted my very first cape of my new life. Namely, a blond comet that blew past above me so quickly I almost missed her.

Wait, was that … Glory Girl? I glanced over in the direction she'd come from and spotted a second teenager, this one with light blue hair, rising slowly into the air and heading in the same direction.

The first one had flashed past to quickly I hadn't been sure about my identification, especially considering I only had a description of her.

There weren't that many fliers in Brockton, especially young blonde ones that flew around in their civies. Well, chances were that Rune was blonde, but the other information ruled her out.

Well, fuck. It seemed my new across the street neighbors were New Wave, who hated Nazis and would likely look askance on my German car and accent, assuming they could identify it.

New Wave that included Carol Dallon, the damaged and paranoid bitch who emotionally abused her unwanted adopted stepdaughter.

Said stepdaughter who was a biokinetic and could identify the weirdness of my creatures with a touch, slaughter them with a tap, and possibly out the fact that even the most mundane looking were, by local standards, biotinker creations.

Biotinker creations capable of reproducing were an automatic A to S-Class threat and my projections technically qualified. Technically. They had all the right parts and were technically real, but they were not completely normal. My power had applied certain shackles, such as the time limit and cooldown, but it also prevented them from breeding and spawning more than twenty minions, if they could do so.

I could feel the information about these powers in the very core of my being. The Deathgripper within me, ready for a fight. The Crimson Indrik, there but blocked for another 18 hours and 2 minutes. The Metal Slime, passive, yet solid and reassuring. Shade and Frogger were less obvious, what I felt from them was their absence, small threads leaving my body and loosing themselves somewhere in the Aether. I knew exactly where they were, I had Frogger in the inside pocket the long coat, almost a trench coat I was wearing while Shade was on overwatch, but I couldn't tell that with my power.

Along with that, there were ten ironclad rules.

Each Creature can only be summoned once a day.

Creatures remain until unsummoned, killed or for 24 hours.

Any creature that comes with others or can summon minions can only summon up to 20.

Only ten creatures can be summoned in total.

My summoned creatures could not get more than five hundred meters away from me, unless they were Kaiju or others that were comparable in size.

They would obey all verbal orders to the best of their ability.

My creatures could not attack me or otherwise directly act against me.

My creatures would always see me as someone to be obeyed and have a good first impression.

They could not reproduce in any way or leave any kind of living material behind.

Lastly, I could not harvest resources from them if I harmed them in doing so.

Thankfully, my Material Extraction power allowed me to handily sidestep that issue.

That being said, this was the first time I had properly examined my soul and properly taken a look at my power's limitations. A lot of it was known to me instinctively, but not everything and certainly not this clearly.

On top of that, I had completely missed the fact that my Menagerie could have a theme. Should have a theme. I hadn't even noticed the empty slot in me until I had taken a proper look.

A theme was an additional modifier I could apply to any creature I had and change them slightly and I could pick any one of the offered twenty-five.

… I'd do that later. Stopping in the middle of my driveway like that was already earning me some weird looks from the people leaving for work.

I hoped into my car and carefully drove off. I had not driven in close to a year due to the pandemic and even before then, I hadn't had my own car hence rarely drive, but miraculously, no mailboxes got broken and no one got run over. A few minutes later, I pulled into the Walmart's parking lot. I took a moment to remove Frogger from my lap and put him under my seat.

"Don't move and don't let anyone see you." I quickly ordered.

He really should have been unsummoned or left behind, but I was to far away from my house and I liked having him around, so this was the best compromise. It was also likely stupid and reckless, but I decided to ignore that part of me.

I thought about themes as I walked.

Eldritch sounded cool and like a fascinating way to disconcert people while Constellation could make them look utterly fantastic. Making them Elementals could make them look interesting and also make them hit far harder. Food would make them made from foodstuffs that could provide a regenerative effect when eaten, which could be a great source of income.

The Insect theme's ability to conjure stinging, biting swarms from their wound would make them far more formidable in combat, but I didn't really think I needed it. I would be using my Deathgripper primarily for combat and anything that could badly injure it would be unlikely to be bothered by mere insects.

The last to themes I was interested in were the Shadow and Undead themes, though only for how cool they could look.

There were ways to get more themes, but those were as random as the rest of my powers so I shouldn't count on it happening any time soon.

I was deep in thought as I entered the massive store and looked around. I was not used to places like this. In Germany, most stores only had food or some other kind of goods, this kind of store that would let you get literally everything were something only other countries had.

By the time I left, I was biting back swearwords. I'd been so deep in thought that navigating the utterly alien layout of the super store had been near impossible. To top it all off, I'd nearly rammed a skinhead with my shopping cart and was low key afraid he'd follow me out, confront me and make me choose between outing me and getting stabbed.

Getting stabbed in the supermarket parking lot less than 24 hours after coming back from the dead was probably the dumbest way someone could conduct themselves after gaining this opportunity.

Softly shaking my head, I headed to my car, loaded it up and returned the shopping cart.

Now that I had stopped worrying, my thoughts returned the need to pick a theme.

Brockton Bay's PRT and, by extension, the Protectorate Division East North East, were led by a survivor of the hell at Elisburg. The same concerns I'd had with regards to Panacea were multiplied tenfold when applied to Emily Piggot. One hint of unusual creatures and she'd be screaming S-Class threat.

At the end of the day, Eldritch would make my creatures to disconcerting, making raising the alarms even more of a likely response. Food was cool but would make them quite weird and probably not help with the biotinker angle. The same went doubly for the Insect theme.

In the end, I was stuck choosing between Shadow, Undead and Constellation. Of the three, Constellation was purely there for looks but also the most impressive while Undead made them incredibly resilient and capable of healing by dealing damage, vampire style. Shadow would be fantastic for infiltration, but I already had both completely invisible and small and agile summons, which would make it somewhat redundant.

Constellation on the other hand … it had been my first instinct before had I even checked what else was available and what they each actually did.

Plus, having more impressive looking summons might help make a good first impression, especially when it likely would eventually come to light that my creatures were biological.

That was a shitstorm I badly wanted to avoid, but I needed to go out sometime.

If not to pick a fight with the gangs then later save the world.

Save. the. friggin. World. Shit.

It was funny, really. Die in a stupid way, get thrown into a Grimdark hellhole where even the local troublemakers had me quaking in my boots with the full knowledge that I needed to go up against opponents that had those same people outclassed by several orders of magnitude.

I pulled into my driveway, shut of the engine and grabbed the groceries out of the back. I ended up having to make several trips, but that gave me more than enough time to make sure I really wanted to get Constellation as a theme.

One last trip to grab Frogger out from under the seat, then left the door open a few moments longer than strictly necessary to let Shade in, then I flounced onto the couch and reached inwards.

The empty slot seemed to warp and flicker to my senses, a roiling vortex of different energies. Cloth spun through the middle, the linen and silk beings it would bring revealing themselves, but it was quickly replaced by what I perceived a cloud of buzzing insects then followed by …

I shoved them all back, leaving my point of view in the middle of an empty void, the various energies flickering around me. Searching through them, each presented me with its power, its capabilities, but I ignored each of them in turn until I found what I was looking for.

A nebula like cloud sat there, stars twinkling, pale azure mist filling in the are between. I mentally reached for it and it surged forward, pushing me back out and filling the void, connecting to each of my creatures in turn.

As I watched, each of them split in two, one the original version, the other a celestial being of grace. Sadly, this didn't double the number of summons I had available, the new creatures were variations I could summon my existing arsenal as, not additional ones, but that was fine.

Speaking of my existing arsenal, there was one I was yet to summon.

I headed downstair, Frogger perched on my shoulder, fully intending on seeing what a metal slime looked like, when my power decided that now was a good time to spring an upgrade on me. I missed a step and started to fall, but Shade uncloaked briefly and pressed against my chest, buying me the time needed to grab the railing.

Apparently, my standing order of "keep me safe" also applied to my own stupidity.

My new summon was a hellishly dangerous being called a Plasma Whisp, a basketball-sized cloud of the same material the sun was made from, with two gloved hands protruding and two eyes sitting deep with it.

If I had gotten almost anything else that could still fit in the room, I'd have summoned it and tried out my theme, but I knew better. For once, I knew better and actually listened to what my common sense was telling me. A being made of plasma would ignite anything made from wood, cloth or plastic with its mere presence.

Therefore, I stuck to my second newest summon.

The metal slime manifested in the center of the sauna, door to the workshop still open.

It was around a cubic meter in volume and took the form of a slightly squished sphere. Twin eyes gazed up at me.

"Blink if you understand me." I ordered. It complied.

"Let's see what you're made of." my knuckles rapped on its outside and got a clank in response.

"Just how solid are you, anyway? Can you soften up a bit?"

My next attempt resulted in a far different sound. The flesh rippled as my knuckles impacted, accompanied by a soft "squish".

"Blink once for no, twice for yes. How flexible are you? Can you only make part of yourself solid?"

Blink, Blink.

"Make your left part as hard as you can and leave your right part soft. That's my right and left."

I tried again, receiving a both results I had previously gotten from different parts of the slime at the same time. Now to see if the cockamamie scheme I'd cooked up on the drive back would actually work.

"How complex a shape can you make?" I held my hand out "Can you reach up with a thin tentacle and envelop my hand in a glove like structure."

Before it could make contact though, I hastily added "Without digesting it or something. I don't know how slimes eat, but please don't"

The slime was surprisingly warm to the touch as is flowed around my appendage, fitting snuggly and leaving roughly a centimeter of material between my skin and the air.

I remembered a long time ago, me sitting in my very first chemistry class as the teacher had us touching the wooden and metal parts of the table simultaneously and feeling the apparent difference in temperature. Apparent because they were both room temperature, but the wood was a poor conductor of warmth and was reflecting our own body heat back at us while the metal conducted it away.

That had been my main worry, that the slime would leech all my warmth away if I submerged myself. This could be a problem to, causing me to overheat, but I thought I could deal with that more easily.

"Now, wait until the end of my instructions, then swallow me up to my neck. The following are standing orders:

Never digest or dissolve me.

Never render me unable to speak.

Never cover my nose or mouth.

Do everything you can to not kill me, ever."

These orders may be excessively paranoid, treating my slime more like a summoned demon that needed to be chained by exact wording and careful phrasing instead of a pet, but I wasn't worried about it murdering me.

My worry was that my creatures were only as smart as they normally were, with some slight tweaks to allow them to understand my orders. However, this thing was not guaranteed to not be as dumb as a bag of hammers and, if it was, there were a million ways this could go wrong.

The beast slowly flowed up me, surrounding me in a tight, but not suffocating, embrace.

"Now, move as I do. At the same speed as I do, make sure it is you who bears the weight of your body and not me."

And then I began to walk, my new "suit" moving with me with ease. I walked into the workshop, then headed through the sauna and out into the short hall that ran the length of the cellar.

"Crunch"

I glanced down, then swore loudly. The wooden floorboards now had a low indentation in them. Hastily taking a step back into the sauna, I sighed in relief when the floor remained untouched.

"Reinforced, I guess. In the future, please create large soles on my feet to spread the weight out. Make sure they don't get tangled and trip me up." I smiled, then silently added "I am really glad that worked. I hereby dub you Ferro, Slime of iron and toughness. You shall now be my armor, my shield, my sword."

I spent the next minute and a half on the floor, giggling helplessly. When I could not be seen by others, I could be such an idiot.

I got up again and walked out into the hall. This time, the floor stayed intact. In fact, it didn't even make any weird noises that would indicate that it was being stressed.

I kept walking till I hit the stairs, then updated my orders.

"Please make sure I don't fall. Properly spread our weight and help stabilize me by keeping part of yourself on the stair bellow me. When I do fall, make sure I do not fall backwards."

Slipping and cracking my skull open while playing around with one of my summons was easily as dumb a way to go as the aforementioned skinhead, knife and parking lot scenario.

As I got halfway up the stairs, I got yet another new summon, but I ignored it. This was too dangerous for distractions. I immediately headed back downstairs into the sauna.

"Please get down from me now." I ordered, then stepped away as the slime melted into a puddle on the floor.

My new summon was very, very unusual. I could now summon a staff that looked like it belonged to a magical girl from some Anime series and a card that would let me summon a young girl called "The Song". Unlike my other summons, the limit was not a maximum time period and cooldown but rather a question of magical power. I had enough for daily summons, though I could tell that it would increase as I got additional summons of the same kind.

The Song herself was capable of singing with great skill and copying voices. Cool, yes but sadly nothing to write home about.

At this point, I really wanted to try out the Deathgripper, but doing that anywhere in the city was out of the question. Therefore, I decided it was time for a road trip.

Dismissing both Ferro and Frogger, I placed the staff in the workshop, then sealed it by pressing on the same stone I used to open it.

Then I headed up and out of the basement to pack.

----

Ok, so as it turns out, I completely forgot to pick out a theme, so I did that now. Also, since when does Word point out bad language as "this language may be offensive to your reader"?

I also decided that the slime is not pure metal, a cubic meter of steel weighs almost eight tons and that would be far too heavy to be viable for what I have in mind.

The new creatures in this chapter:

Plasma Whisp from Kirby (Plasma Wisp | Kirby Wiki | Fandom)

The Song from Cardcaptor Sakura (The Song | Cardcaptor Sakura Wiki | Fandom)