3 (Keep calm and create.)

Chapter three:

"What the hell just happened? Travis said as he tried to rationalize something, anything to make sense of what had just occurred. One minute he was at the New York City Comic Con about to ask Stan Lee himself about the most enigmatic of characters in Marvel. And then the next he was, well, he didn't exactly know where he was. It seemed as though he was... everywhere?

Well, maybe not everywhere. He could feel the boundaries of his existence, but within that boundary... it seemed as though everything existed. He couldn't wrap his mind over such a concept. So much information, every particle, every atom, quark even.

Every subatomic reaction going through their natural procwsses was felt and understood by him. So then, he thought, if he can understand them and they're a part of him, than could he manipulate them?

He first started with something small, bonding hydrogen and oxygen with a little of the excess he found inside himself as well. Soon his whole... body was filled with water. That made him feel, well, for a lack of a better term, saturated. So he gradually increased the energy of the molecules and produced steam, and that made him feel bloated. Frustrated, he broke down the individual molecules into their base parts and just let the matter exist for a while. He took the opportunity to relax and think over what he just learned.

So, as long as he can understand a chemical reaction, he can make it happen inside of himself. That's cool, but still what the hell happened to make this possible?

Calm down, calm down, it's okay, let's just take stock of the situation some more and see if I can figure things out.

This time, instead of finding himself looking inward, Travis observed his surroundings. And what he found made him figuratively cock his head to the side. It kind of reminded him of a mixture of the Skyrim loading screen and the Vincent Van Gogh painting" The Starry Night. Darkness and what seemed like white mist swirling around together endlessly. Hmm, no... that's not quite right is it?

Seemingly by instinct, he knew that this wasn't darkness or mist, but instead concepts of nothingness and existence. The literal manifestations of the concepts of the numbers 0 and 1 were right before his... eyes? And he started to get lost in them.

It raised so many questions. The forefront of which being, if 0 and 1 are in fact representations of nothingness and existence, than is all reality nothing more than universal- grade binary running pre-established algorithms?

Other questions were less pressing, even downright ridiculous. Is this the Matrix? Am I Neo? Is Jack Morpheus? And as fast as the questions were raised they were just as quickly dismissed as an impossibility.

However, there was one possibility that he overlooked until. Wait... Jack, Stan Lee... They acted like friends... no way... Jack Kirby? No, even more incredible, is he the Creator!? Is this all real? And right now am I the One Above All? Stunned at these thoughts he loses himself in the implications.

Excited about the prospect of meeting his heroes and supervillains, seeing the sights of the multiverse, with adventure and discovery around every corner. But the excitement quickly died down, replaced with questions. The most important question on his mind was.

"Why me? Travis LaRowe said to himself.

Indeed, he didn't consider himself anything special. So why would a being as powerful as the comics claim, choose him to take up the role? What did it all mean?

After what felt like hours of pondering and reflection, something started changing. Something was moving inside him as his concentration lapsed during his musings. After looking inside, he found slimly black tar like beings just writhing and oozing about. Pulsing and growing every second, threatening to overwhelm and consume him. He felt sick to his stomach! But they were alive, and technically he did create them, at least, that's what he felt to be true. So he decided to bear it for now, only blocking their attempts to expand beyond himself. But he underestimated just how voliate and abhorrent this creation of his was.

They consumed each other as well as ambient energy and mass in order to propagate. They were the very definition of life violently exploding without a care in the world. Barely even considered to be sentient. No emotions or morals to govern their actions. They just seemed driven by a need to exist. And the more Jon watched, the more disgusted he felt.

"I'm going to be sick! Travis, after many hours of observation, felt like he was at the proverbial brink.

"That's it! I don't care if you are alive, this is my body and I want you gone!! Said Travis LaRowe.

In his fury, he started breaking down this slimly nastiness into it's base components until matter and energy were back to their base forms again. Except, compared to the steam, this time it was much more difficult to accomplish. Because the ooze fought back. And it fought back hard.

Hours he fought, weeks year's. Time seemed to flow differently here, if it even flowed at all. But he fought for what felt like eons, bringing his being back under his complete control right as he was about to collapse and lapse into what he presumed to be returning nothingness. Is that what entropy is?

Exhausted, he tried to rest. However, after a while it became obvious that instead of recovering with rest he just... stagnated, and hungered.

This level of Cosmic Entity can feel hunger? But what the hell am I supposed to even eat? Confused, he looked again to the black and white swirls surrounding him when an idea struck him. It didn't exactly look appetizing but, for lack of better options what choice did he have?

Well, there's nothing else here. Might as well try. He thought as he extended himself and tried a few things to go about consuming it.

It was hard at first, but eventually he came to realize that just as he could will creation and destruction within himself, he could extend that will outside of himself to grab and take into himself the nothingness and existence. And as he did so, he felt the nature of the outside substance fundamentally change into mass and energy, as well as seeping into what was already there. It was as if the energy and particulates within himself felt rejuvenated just by the duality's presence. After another few hours he felt stated. It was with that satisfaction that he began to relax. But with a start, remembered that it was him not concentrating that allowed the proliferation of those things.

So, he kept up the concentration to keep the energy within himself from reacting with the mass of particles that also made up his new existence. He didn't know how long he could hold it though. It was as if the reactions were begging to happen, as if it was inevitable. He could will it to do it himself, but if he let it run its course without his input, he knew those things would be back.

"Not bad. Stan Lee and I took a few relative trillion years each to figure that out. You figured it out after a few relative billion, color me impressed. Said Jack Kirby.