1 A New Beginning

You know when you reach a certain point in life you tend to forget a lot of things that used to be on your mind in your younger days. Being a superhero for instance or gaining some kind of superhuman ability. However, once you reach adulthood and start to work and integrate more in society those thoughts disappear from your mind completely. So quite honestly after dying I was shocked to realise you didn't simply disappear or vanish from existence. Well I can't say for certain since I'm the only one I know of to ever experience something like this, but I digress.

After living a long and full life the bane of all living creatures caught up. Old age. At 98 years old with a family who cared about me and a legacy which left its mark on history death wasn't a scary thing knowing I would live on eternally in the memory of the future generations. Alas it seems fate had other plans in store for me.

"Father, please don't go, please!" "Grandfather!" "Mike! Dear!" The tear drops fell incessantly as I took my last breath. I was prepared to die but I was surprised my wife outlived me.

'The pain she must be feeling…' I sigh 'I guess it's time to learn the truth of what comes after death. Will it be heaven or hell I wonder? I did cure cancer and some other previously titled uncurable illnesses, but I also worked on projects of mass destruction, albeit they were for peace keeping purposes.' Thinking along those lines Mike Johnson, the man titled as the greatest bioengineer and mechanical engineer to exist, his consciousness slipped into darkness…or so it is supposed to go.

'…oh, come on why haven't I died yet!' Mike, still being conscious of his thoughts and memories was startled.

'Isn't everything supposed to fade to black and then a white light is to pop up?' Whilst trying to figure out what was happening by reaching to the depths of his memories to all the stories, he heard of what comes after death, his eyes which he was previously unable to open, uncontrollably flung open as he appeared in a white citadel. The floors were white marble, with supporting pillars of white marble encrusted with gems. The roof was a white tinted glass ceiling with murals of angels and demons on the walls. Along the left and right sides of the long hallway was rows of beings with wings on their back, some white some black, some red some grey and in the centre, was a throne which oozed supremacy. Simply staring at the throne made Mike's knees weak, his palms were sweaty as he knelt down unconsciously. Sitting on the throne was a half man half woman being with a white golden halo over his/her head. Its eyes were a deep blue with a gentle smile on its face.

'Holy F***, that's god. F**k f**k f**k he's real. Shit shit shit shit f**kkkkk' Mike's mind ran a million miles an hour as the situation cemented itself in his brain.

'What do I do I wasn't an atheist, but I wasn't a firm believer also. Everything that I needed or wanted I got with my own two hands so to pray or ask god for help never really passed my mind. Shit is that bad will he sentence me to hell. Wait why is god himself here shouldn't there be a lesser being taking care of allocating where souls go after death?' As soon as that last thought passed through his mind God spoke.

"Mike Johnson, welcome my child, to the place you call heaven. You can stop worrying now you weren't summoned to be punished but instead to be rewarded. As fate would have it you were born into poverty but to you that mattered not. You had your parents who loved you and you were determined to pay them back somehow and one day take them out of the poverty-stricken area you were in. At the age of 10 you were hailed as a mathematician prodigy and by the age of 18, treated as a special case you were allowed to get your master's degree in chemical engineering. At the age of 20 you had your PhD in bioengineering and synthesized a 100% cure for cancer. With your newfound popularity and power instead of moving out from the so-called slums you transformed the entire area into a new city with your lab as its centrepiece. By doing this you inadvertently saved many from a future of despair and depression greatly changing their fate. You then was asked to help build a weapon to supress a new uprising in the west by the US believing them when they said it will only be used as a deterrent and peace keeping measure alas a mass genocide took place using the bioweapon you created claiming the lives of 5000 people. Whether they truly were guilty or innocent you would never had known yet you felt responsible and focused on curing diseases and initiated humanitarian acts to help the less fortunate. When you were 40 years old you got addicted to alcohol but thankfully your family was around to help you combat the addiction and got you rehabilitated. By age of 60 there was no disease in existence you hadn't cured, and you started to help fight global warming and pollution. By age 70 you retired from working as a doctor after receiving an award and title as the Doctor of the Century by the world. In all those moments of your life not once did you ask me for help, not once did you ask anyone for help you did it all by yourself and with the support of your family. You truly are remarkable man, son."

After listing out everything he had accomplished for some reason tears from running down Mike's face.

'Huh? Why, why am I crying. Shit this is embarrassing.' Quickly wiping away the tears from his face he awaited what God had next to say. All this while the rows of beings on the sides were whispering amongst themselves most likely discussing what was just said.

"Honestly my child I have never helped anyone on Earth or any other planet," God said.

'Wait, what did he just say. I felt like I learnt something huge just now.'

"Reason being if I intervened once I would have to intervene again and again and again and you all, my children won't grow up. You humans have a saying, every action has an equal and opposite reaction, that quite neatly sums up your existence. But enough about that the reason why you were summoned is I have a request that only you can accomplish. There is a planet in a galaxy far far away called Archage."

Suddenly a smile that didn't suit the face of a being called God appeared on his/her face.

"My request is simple. Conquer it."

With that being said a black hole opened up and swallowed Mike whole.