Chapter 3: Awakening

Ethan gasped for breath, his lungs filled with a sharp coldness that stung with every inhale. His eyes flew open to see nothing but an endless sky above him. The sensation of falling was overwhelming. The wind howled past his ears as the ground below, far too distant, appeared like a small patchwork of buildings and streets. Thousands of meters separated him from the city beneath.

He blinked, trying to piece together what had happened. The last thing he remembered was the black hole tearing everything apart, then nothing. Now, he was here, plummeting toward the ground.

His hands flexed instinctively, and that's when he noticed it, his body wasn't the same. The skin on his arms, stark white and covered in swirling black circles, wasn't anything like he remembered. His muscles, once lean but human, now felt like they held an unnatural power coursing through them.

"What... happened to me?" he muttered. The words felt strange in his mouth, like they didn't belong. As he looked down at his hands, his mind was assaulted by a sudden wave of memories, fragments flashing too fast to comprehend all at once.

Pain shot through his skull, and he clenched his teeth, riding out the flood of thoughts. Bits of his past flickered in and out of focus. The particle collider, the betrayal, the black hole swallowing everything. Then... the merging.

"Have I... reincarnated?" The thought seemed absurd, but it was the only explanation that made sense. "I should have died. But I don't remember much."

The Ethan who existed now wasn't entirely the same Ethan from before. The black hole had killed him, yes. But in its wake, it had created something else. Merging him, twisting him with a different soul, one that wasn't from here. Not from his Earth.

Despite the lack of clarity in his mind, a few things were certain. His name, his age, the basic understanding of this body's power. Everything else felt like it was behind a fog, just out of reach. He couldn't even recall where he was or why he was here. All he knew was that the power coursing through him felt right. It was part of him now.

Ethan turned his gaze back to the city far below, falling faster now. He should have been panicking, but instead, a strange calm settled over him.

He placed a hand on his chin, thoughtfully turning his back to the ground as if he were merely floating in space rather than plummeting at terminal velocity. "Well... I guess this is it then," he mused to himself. "Maybe I'll just do whatever I want."

There was no hesitation. Ethan had no grand purpose to cling to, no past life to ground him. He was free now... whatever that meant.

His attention shifted to his new form, intrigued by the strange strength he could feel flowing through him. His stark white skin seemed almost alien to him, but the black circles scattered across it... they felt familiar in a way he couldn't explain. He raised an arm to inspect it more closely, noticing one of the circles on his forearm shift subtly, as if alive.

Curious, he flicked his wrist. The small black circle detached, floating ahead of him through the air as he continued to fall. The circle, no larger than his hand at first, began to expand rapidly. It grew until it formed a massive pitch-black void directly beneath him.

A smirk crept across his face. "Interesting."

Without another thought, Ethan let himself fall into the circle. The portal swallowed him whole, leaving nothing but the sound of the wind in its wake.

....

The scene shifted with a sudden whoosh, a black portal swirling to life in the narrow alley of Manhattan. Trash littered the ground, piles of crumpled newspapers, fast food wrappers, and the unmistakable stench of garbage bags left too long in the heat. The brick walls were stained with years of grime, graffiti scrawled on every surface in chaotic colors.

Out of the swirling void, Ethan tumbled horizontally, hitting the ground hard. The impact sent trash flying, the force of the fall enough to crack the concrete beneath him. A normal human would have been turned into a smear of blood from the kinetic energy alone, but Ethan barely flinched. He let out an annoyed grunt, more inconvenienced than hurt.

Sitting up, Ethan brushed off the dust from his white skin, noting how oddly detached he felt from the physical world. He stood up, bones cracking as he stretched, his joints popping into place with satisfying clicks. As he glanced around, his attention was drawn immediately to the towering skyscrapers visible at the end of the alley. The buildings stretched into the sky, their glass reflecting the orange hues of the setting sun.

He began walking toward the entrance of the alley, his mind churning with thoughts of this strange new place. But he paused. His eyes, or rather, the single black circle on his face, widened as he realized the obvious problem. With his current appearance, walking out into the city would draw far too much attention. His body, covered in swirling black circles on stark white skin, wasn't exactly subtle. And while he wasn't here to make friends, inconveniences weren't what he was looking for right now.

He needed to blend in, at least for now.

Ethan closed his eyes, or, more accurately, he focused inward, despite having no eyes in the traditional sense. He felt something deep within him. A swirling mass of energy, chaotic and overwhelming, flowed through his veins like a wild river. It was raw, almost uncontrollable, and yet it was his. He could feel it pulsing, threatening to break free at any moment.

With a deep breath, Ethan commanded the energy to calm itself. Slowly, the black and white circles on his body began to shift, pulling toward the single large circle on his face. They moved with a strange, liquid-like quality, merging into the black void until the last of the circles was absorbed. Then, the circle itself shrank and disappeared, leaving behind smooth, tan skin.

Ethan glanced down at his arms, now back to his normal human appearance, his original body, dark brown skin and all. He smiled, satisfied with the result. But then he frowned.

He was naked.

"Well, that's inconvenient," he muttered under his breath, shaking his head in mild irritation.

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