1 Memories and Tests

Sitting at the dining table, eating breakfast, I instantly knew the extra large portion the orphanage cook had made for me...wasn't going to be enough.

Another check off the list about my mutation literally me being a Saiyan.

Sighing, I figured I could go and steal some food after breakfast, so I just scarfed down what was in front of me before getting up and rushing back to my room, leaving the massive cafeteria room behind me along with all the annoying little bastards there. I had to get back to my room because...I really needed to sort out my memories.

Why did I have to do that? Well, you see, I have two sets of memories.

They both follow the same plotline for the first 14 years. I was born and named Leonardo Gracie, parents Raul Gracie and Joanna Gracie. I was born in Brazil before my dad moved us to America where he opened up an MMA gym and my mom became a stay at home mom or whatever.

He set up an MMA gym because back in Brazil he took place in underground Vale Tudo matches. Vale Tudo pretty much being a bloodier version of MMA. No rules, basically. He used the money from these matches to take us to America, made us American citizens and got us a house. With the leftover money, he brought a run down gym, like I said, and taught a less bloody version of his fighting style to people who wanted to pay for that sort of stuff.

Business boomed, I guess you could say, and we didn't really need to worry about money. We weren't extremely rich or anything but we had enough to easily get by.

Dad taught me all he knew about Vale Tudo. Strikes, grappling, how to move in a fight, how to not flinch when you get hit, etc, etc. He even helped me exercise and condition my body. Well, not as hard as he did for himself, considering my age and whatnot, but he still had me exercise because as he said ''Your body and it's fitness is the only thing you can really control. If you exercise, you're guaranteed to get better and if you don't, you're guaranteed to get worse,'' and I guess I took that to heart because I exercised just about every day when I had time.

And when I wasn't training with dad, I was with mom helping her around the house or taking Portuguese lessons off of her. I was born in Brazil, sure, but I grew up in America. If it weren't for my mom, I wouldn't have been able to say a word to my relatives when we went to Brazil to meet them.

So, it was safe to say that I was enjoying life with my loving parents. Sparring and exercising with my dad in the early morning before school and learning how to cook from my mom or doing my own exercise when I got back from school. But as you probably already guessed, that didn't last for very long.

When I was twelve, my family and I got into a car accident. Drunk driver fell asleep at the wheel and swerved into our car. My parents died and I survived with some pretty bad injuries. I have a scar that goes from the left side of my torso, down across my chest to my right hip. Like a diagonal line. But other than that...I was fine. Physically, at least.

Mentally, I was pretty messed up, as you'd expect.

Either way, I was sent to an orphanage because the authorities couldn't find or get in contact with any of my relatives. So, I spent my time at the orphanage. I wasn't a talkative child to begin with as I felt more at ease listening to others and adding only when I needed to but after my parents deaths...I was just quiet.

I kept to myself and pretty much only exercised and practiced my Vale Tudo MMA. It felt like I was with my dad whenever I practiced, so I ended up doing it whenever I had the time to. Of course this meant I kept my body to an incredible fitness level but it also meant I was seen as a little weird.

Especially by other kids. Can't really blame them, honestly. I'd think someone was weird if all they did was do calisthenics and they didn't talk to anyone. Plus, kids don't understand emotional trauma so they didn't understand that exercise and practicing martial arts were sort of like my therapy. Or a mental crutch to stop me from collapsing in on myself.

Though it'd be a lie to say that's ALL I did. I also practiced my Portuguese a lot. For the same reason I practiced my Vale Tudo MMA: It let me feel like I was learning with my mom again. It calmed me.

...I also got into a lot of fights, but let's smooth passed that, yeah?

Now, this is where the memories diverge.

In one set, when I turn 14, my relatives come and adopt me and take me back to Brazil where they raise me among my loving family members and I begin to open up again, slowly healing after the trauma I experienced. But even though I was healed, I didn't stop my martial arts training and I begin to take part in underground Vale Tudo matches, following in the footsteps of my dad. I made a name for myself but in six years time, just after my 20th birthday, I got killed in a gang shoot out because I shielded a small family of three from a volley of bullets. A young mother and her twins. Of course, after turning myself into a human meat shield, I died.

But for the other set of memories...I don't have any memories past the day I turned 14 other than six months having passed. My relatives should've adopted me by now and taken me back to Brazil...but I was still here. I was in my 14-year-old body again.

But wait, there's more!

In the memories where I was adopted, I was born in 1998. In the memories I've got from the body I'm in...I was born in 1968. 30 whole years before then. I also remember something pretty shocking.

Captain America. No, not from a movie or anything but the real Captain America. I remember learning about him in school. An American war hero who was also a super soldier. He fought with and led a group called 'The Howling Commandos'. It was all in my history books. Also, Howard Stark, owner and CEO of Stark Industries, and his genius son Tony Stark are also always on the news or in the newspapers.

...It was at that moment that I realized where I was. The MCU.

There was also another stunning development: I had a tail. My body also seemed A LOT stronger than before and my memories of this life told me that this 'condition' had just showed up.

I was quite sure I was a Mutant of some kind. Either that or I was a Saiyan. I would say the latter doesn't make sense because how can someone's species change overnight...but that'd be the stupidest thing to say. Especially after I woke up in a body of my younger self...16 years before I was supposed to be born. All confusing stuff, sure, but it'd also made it so I was pretty open to even the wackiest theories about what's happening to me.

I could be a Saiyan, for all I know, or I could just be a Mutant. Mutants aren't in the MCU but at the same time, neither was I, so who knows what's here now. I, for one, sure as hell don't know.

Anyway, so I woke up with a tail and I got dressed after finally being able to control the tail and wrapping it around my waist. It was surprisingly prehensile and easy to control, so it only took a few tries. Then I went to breakfast, ate an extra large portion, left the cafeteria....and we're all caught up. Just in time as well, as I'm back at my room.

Entering the room, I walked to my studying desk and picked up the wooden chair before blocking the door from opening. I didn't want any prying eyes from what I was about to do. Exercise, by the way. Jeez, get your mind out of the gutter, yeah?

Once I'd done that, I took my hoodie off and my shorts and I was left in my underwear. Dropping to the ground, I began to go through an intense calisthenics routine. Push ups, sit ups, crunches, squats, lunges, pull ups, etc, etc. I went through my entire body and all my major and smaller muscle groups...but despite doing a work out that would've put my 14-year-old body out of it and gasping for air with sore and tired muscles...I didn't feel tired at all.

In fact, I felt like I was barely warmed up, and my body was begging for more exercise and more intense routines.

...Another check to the box about me being like a Saiyan, huh?

Controlling the urge and desire to exercise more, I decided to check for one more thing: Ki. Saiyan's naturally had it and were naturally talented at using it. Saiyan children could use Ki Attacks and fly if given even the most basic of instruction about either one. So, with my knowledge of Dragon Ball, I should be able to figure something out right? Or at the very least I could try it out.

Sitting down on the floor, I settled into a meditative pose before closing my eyes and calming my breath. I didn't exactly know how to search for my own Ki but I knew how to meditate, so I just decided to do that and see if it gave any results.

Surprisingly, after a few seconds, I began to feel a boundless energy flooding through me with each of my breaths. The energy came from my very being and saturated my body, repairing whatever muscles were slightly ripped from my earlier workout, making them stronger and better. Aside from the energy that was repairing my body and making it stronger, there was also another stream of energy that came from my cells and began to pour off of me like a beacon.

I quickly recognized the energy as Ki, a universal form of energy that's pretty much the living being's life force or latent energy given form.

Ki is made up of three things: Vigor (Body), Courage (Spirit) and Mind (Ki Control). If any of these three things is improved, your amount of Ki will also increase in both amount and intensity. Raise all three and your Ki will grow incredibly.

The reason why Saiyan's have so much Ki is because their bodies are so superhumanly strong and they can continue to get stronger to an unbelievable degree. But it could easily be different; if a species had abnormally strong spirits or naturally incredible Ki Control, their Ki would also be as abundant as a Saiyan's.

Just look at Frieza. He's got an abnormally strong body and incredible Ki Control (as shown by his transformations and how they suppress his abundant power), which made him incredibly strong.

There are exceptions to this rule, however. Like the Androids. They have as much Ki as they do because of the generators in their bodies. Another exception is Broly. He just has a lot of Ki because that's the type of Saiyan he is - a Legendary Super Saiyan.

Which is why when I saw such an abundance to the Ki and energy inside of me...I knew I was one of those exceptions, and because I knew I wasn't an android, I had to assume that I was like Broly.

So, to prove my theory, I grasped at the Ki inside of me, both surprised at the absolute amount of it inside me and how easy it was for me to grab it. How natural it felt. So, using this natural Ki Control I had, I took 1% of 1% of 1% of 1% of the full amount and I guided it through my arm, to the palm of my hand that I'd lifted and faced palm up in front of me.

I opened my eyes just as I funneled that Ki above the palm of my hand and I instantly started sweating as I felt an unnatural pressure on my mind and arm. Like my Ki was tryin to destroy my arm and this natural Ki Control was very strenuous to my mind.

But I pushed through.

I morphed the Ki to be what I wanted and a small blip of green appeared a foot above my palm. Then it began to rapidly grow and grow and grow. It grew until it was nearly touching the ceiling above me. It must've been two meters in diameter and width. A bright, toxic green that glowed and thrummed like the radioactive waste you'd seen in a cartoon. Yet it was good enough to tell me that I was right.

I might be a Saiyan and more specifically, I might be a Legendary Super Saiyan. Huh. Well ain't that something?