Chapter 1: The Gacha God

"It's the Man! Cheese it!" I shouted, throwing myself over a table, sending a half-eaten cheese pizza and a very flat root beer over the edge as I scrambled out of the booth. The rather rundown pizza parlor thumped with powerful music, filling the air with the latest pop hits and the sounds of dozens of teenagers. The light was low, and the glass window to the parlor was tinted, but I still saw the approaching cops and teachers. While my warning might have fallen on deaf ears, my ruckus didn't as I slid to my feet and started to take off.

The people that were in my booth were all left behind as I rushed to save myself. I tried to give the warning. If they failed to heed it, then that was completely on them. With a clear conscience, I began to shove past the teenagers that filled the parlor - it was a popular hangout spot for kids skipping class by virtue that the owner couldn't care less so long as he had customers. A few seconds later, I heard a voice shouting out. "Stay where you are! The police are with us! Sit down! Sit down!"

It was bound to happen sooner or later, I thought, shoving forward as I headed to the back exit. If a rat nest grew big enough, it was only a matter of time that it was dealt with - from the under age drinking, the drug deals that were done so blatantly they weren't even really hidden anymore, to kids fucking in the bathroom. It was a den of vice and debauchery filled with teenagers that were supposed to be in school. It was only a matter of time before the various schools and cops cracked down, if only because someone's parents found out and kicked up a fuss.

I slammed through the back exit and right into the arms of a guy that looked like someone had distilled a human being from every gym coach in America - thick arms, barrel chest, sunglasses, bit of a gut but in a strongman type of way, and rocking a nineteen-seventies pornstache. I was swept up in his arms, giving me very conflicted feelings, as the rest of the cops slash gym coaches that could be afforded for the raid closed in, trapping everyone that had managed to heed my warning.

"Ah, you got me. Mind letting go?" I requested, and, shockingly, the request was answered by being shoved into a wall. "Thank you. I think," I muttered, my legs forced apart while I was quickly frisked and a drug dog gave me a couple of sniffs before losing interest in me. "Am I under arrest?"

"Doesn't look like it," a cop answered. "You'll just be going to a different bighouse. What school do you go to?" He asked me, and it wasn't like I could tell the truth on that account. The truth being that I didn't go to school at all. I'm not sure if I was enrolled anywhere. Luckily, however, a redheaded girl that fell into the same trap I did, gave me an answer.

"Midtown High School… of, uh, Science and Technology," she offered, the faintest quiver in her voice that told me that this was a first for her. So did the wide eyes and pale skin.

I inclined my head to her, "What she said." I decided, figuring it'd be pretty easy to just make my escape there. Sounded like a nice school. Not the kind that would have on-campus security to make sure the troublemakers were kept in line. The redhead glanced at me, her brow furrowing ever so slightly because she clearly didn't recognize me, but she said nothing when I offered a subtle wink at her.

"Alright. Take a seat at the curb and do. Not. Get. Up. Not unless you are given express permission to. I do not want to chase down some punk kids so I will taser the absolute hell out of you to avoid any cardio. Capiche?" A cop questioned, his tone making it very clear that there was a correct answer to that question. He didn't wait for us to answer before we were shoved along and forced to take a seat at the curbside, joining others as the building was emptied out. I saw that there were several buses to take us to whatever school we belonged to. Or prison, I guess, seeing a guy I knew get escorted out in cuffs.

I was seated by the redhead, who was in turn seated by a dark-skinned girl, who was then seated next to a dark-skinned guy that openly wore a letterman jacket. Of the football team he was on. For the school he played for.

"Uh, who are you? I don't think you go to our school," the redhead remarked, looking at me with a questioning look. I think she was around my age, so she was probably either a sophomore or junior. If she was a Senior, then she'd be eighteen and eligible to hangout at way cooler places than a shitty pizza parlor.

"Sebastian. Sebastian Galahad Stillwater," I introduced with a cheeky smile. "And do you know everyone that goes to our school?"

The redhead cocked an eyebrow at me, "That's seriously your name?"

"Let's hear yours before we start judging," I replied, not surprised by the reaction. My name was pretentious. And long. But it was my name all the same. That got a faint smile from the redhead as she nodded, conceding the point while more kids were brought out of the parlor. Some in handcuffs and others were just sitting on the curb. A couple tried to run away, but they were brought down hard, convincing me I was right to try to bail when the cops weren't around.

That got a laugh from the football player, "If you're asking that, then you don't go to Midtown."

"OMG, I didn't know I was sitting next to a celebrity," I responded, my tone dripping with sarcasm. I guess that did give me away. She and the other girl were pretty enough to be popular girls. The guy was a football player, and while that didn't make him popular by default, I imagine hanging out with two hot girls did.

"You seriously said OMG, huh?" The redhead remarked, losing some of the tension in her posture. "I'm Mary Jane Watson. That's Liz, and that's Randy. Nice to meet you, I guess."

"My parents are going to kill me," Liz blurted, acting like a total buzzkill. "I knew I shouldn't have skipped. The one time I do this, and I get caught. This is so your fault, Randy," Liz started, laying into the guy on her right. He looked mildly guilty, so I guess he was the one that talked her into the excursion. However, Mary Jane lowered her gaze to the road in front of us, biting a painted red lip out of nervousness.

"Don't be so worried. You ever see that show scared straight?" I asked her, making her look up at me. "They put a bunch of kids in a room with deranged murderers and let them lay into the kids about how awful prison is. The idea is to scare the kids into not being little assholes, but I'm not sure if it actually works. That's all this is. Show of force to scare us. After all, what can they do? It's not like we can be arrested for skipping class," I pointed out and I saw my words had exactly zero effect on her.

That told me she wasn't afraid of the police.

All the same, she offered a feeble smile as the end of the row of kids was being led onto the buses. "Thanks, Sebastian," she offered a token of appreciation but it was clearly just a token. Mary Jane fell into a sullen silence while Liz really laid into Randy about dragging her out and how bad it was going to look and so on and so on. She laid into him as we got onto the bus, the bus ride up to Midtown, and I don't even think she stopped to breathe as we pulled up into what must be Midtown Highschool for… something and something.

It was honestly pretty impressive. Both Liz and the school. The school was a three-story building of red brick that was pretty long with a football field right in front of it that was separated by a road. It was hardly the most impressive building that I had ever seen - that honor belonged to shameless whores by virtue of a complete lack of shame and a full understanding of who would club there - but as far as schools went, it seemed like an upscale one.

"Oh God…" Mary Jane muttered, sinking into her seat upon seeing that a handful of teachers were waiting for their wayward students. When the bus came to a stop, an Asian man in his mid forties stepped forward, looking at all of us with expressive disappointment.

"I hoped that none of my students would have been rounded up like this, but I never thought it would be a member of our football team and two cheerleaders that would have been caught. And… you as well, young man," the principal started, looking at me. "Your parents will all be notified - on school suspension for three days, as well as detention for those three days. For all of you- I don't care about practicing for cheerleading or football. Take it up with your coaches and explain to them why you have to miss." The Principal stated, making Mary Jane go deathly still and I think Randy was about to start crying at the prospect of missing practice.

I thought about just walking off when the principal started leading us into the building, but now I was interested. The school was clearly upscale, the kind of place that had tuition and scholarships like a miniature college. There was bound to be someone with a wallet full of cash in here somewhere. Might as well follow through and seize an opportunity that fell into my lap. So, I followed along with an amused smile on my face as we were led into the building. It was clean, I noticed - not squeaky clean or enough you could eat off of the floor, but there was no mold or busted-up walls.

We passed by a number of classes filled with students and, weirdly enough, I think some of them were actually eager to answer questions. Once we reached the on-campus suspension room, we were greeted by the sight of a middle aged woman with dyed blonde hair, and blue eyes that peered through thin wire glasses. Instantly, I got the impression of a woman that started teaching because she wanted to shape the next generation during their final years of adolescence.

After decades, teenagers had ground that innocent desire into dust by virtue of teenagers being teenagers and she decided to exact revenge on them by making us miserable while she limped to the finish line of retirement so she could collect her pension. A nameplate on a desk at the far wall, all of the student desks facing the walls so she could keep an eye on all of them, read Mrs. Crane.

"Names and classes," Mrs. Crane spoke up, the other students in the room taking notice of us. I saw a bunch of dull, pimple-ridden, interesting faces. "I'll collect your work for today, but going forward, it will be here waiting for you." With that, she started with Randy, then Liz, then Mary Jane, and finally, me.

My response? I just echoed names that the prior three gave. And none of them said a single word about it until Mrs. Crane left the room.

"The security at this school sucks," Mary Jane decided, looking at me as I went to the door.

"Meh - looking like you belong is the secret to life. If people think you're supposed to be somewhere, they aren't going to say anything, because why would they?" I responded by going to the door and finding it locked. A bit weird, but I suppose it was to stop students from pulling a runner. Looking around, I spotted a paperclip on the teacher's desk and snagged it. "I'm about to blow this popsicle stand. Anyone coming with?"

I could see in Mary Jane's eyes that she was tempted. I think she was trying to outrun the trouble she was going to be in. It usually worked for me, but I'm not so sure it would pan out in her case. However, it was Liz that spoke up, "Erm, no thank you. I think we're in enough trouble as it is." Mary Jane offered a hesitant nod in agreement, the decision made.

Sliding the paperclip into the door, I effortlessly picked the lock, "Suit yourselves. Later, losers."

Pushing the door open, I strolled out and let it close behind me as I looked both ways down the hall. Shrugging my shoulders, I picked a direction and started walking with my hands in my pockets, looking right at home as I searched for wherever the locker room was. I only had to find the scent of BO to find it. Striding inside, I saw rows of lockers, most of which were closed.

Casually, I started picking locks and rifling through wallets - padlocks weren't difficult to open, at all. They were mostly there to discourage theft rather than actually prevent it, so each only took me about three seconds to pick. Few wallets were empty, some had a few bucks in them, but one guy had about a hundred. Probably to impress his friends or his girl. Or his boy. I don't judge. Either way, his mistake and more money for me.

I shoved the cash into my pockets before I heard a bell ring, warning me to step out of the locker room. Kids poured out of the classrooms, filling the halls, and I was swept into the foot traffic before I spotted the cafeteria. Curious, I followed a ride of kids into the large room that was filled with long tables.

"It's cheese stick day. Sweet," I decided, going in line and grabbing a tray. You could never go wrong with mozzarella sticks. It was just impossible to fuck up. Peeling off a few bills to pay for the food, I scanned the cafeteria for a quiet place to eat. What I found instead was something far more interesting. An Indian kid with a popped collar initially caught my attention by virtue of the absurdity of someone trying to pull off a popped collar. That was unfortunate. Everyone that could have pulled off the pop collared look died in the sixties and seventies.

Beyond that, what drew me towards him was the fact he was fucking with a couple of other kids. One was a heavy set asian guy with dark hair and dark eyes. The other was a mousey brown-haired, bone thin, but could have been handsome if he ever bothered to touch grass and learned how to exfoliate. The table around them was fairly empty, allowing me to easily see how the Indian guy was towering over the two and the expressions of… maybe fear wasn't the right word, but deep shame and humiliation could clearly be seen on both of them.

I didn't particularly have an issue with bullying. It was just a fact of life and you had to deal with it. People were mean, vindictive, and total assholes that made themselves feel better about themselves by dumping the shit that was dumped on them onto other people. That's just how it was.

However.

I did have an issue with pissants puffing themselves up and not knowing their place.

The two being bullied noticed my approach first, seeming uncertain if they should be afraid or not. Their shifting attention brought Pop-Up's attention to me, turning around with a vaguely surprised expression on his face. Could be that he had no idea why I was coming to him. Could be he was surprised that someone was bothering to interfere. "I want to sit there," I told him, looking down at him.

He blinked, "Wh-what?" He asked, looking at his sides to see perfectly available seats.

The absolute audacity of this bitch. So, I smacked the shit out of him. A loud pop filled the air that wasn't quite drowned out by the sound of a few hundred kids talking, Pop-Up's head snapped to the side and he fell out of his seat while a hand went to the side of his face. He landed on his ass and I took the time to set my tray down before taking my seat, the two across from me couldn't have been more shocked if I grew a second head.

I did hear an, "OH, SHIT!" From behind me as the table behind us noticed the slap and they all perked up, looking excited for a fight. I only looked down at Pop-Up, who looked up at me with an utterly gobsmacked expression like he still hadn't processed what had happened.

"You goin' to do something?" I asked, taking my seat as Pop-Up scrambled to his feet, the shocked expression fading to one of simmering rage. His lips were pressed into a thin line, his eyes were red, like he was on the verge of tears, and his breathing was harsh. I could feel the anger coming off of him in waves and his hands were shaking, like he was about to take a swing. I really thought he was but, instead, he turned around and started walking to the entrance of the cafeteria.

Huh. Guess he was smarter than I thought. I got my seat, and he also left his lunch so I got double cheese sticks. Today was shaping up to be a pretty great day.

I offered an apologetic shrug at the table that had noticed the fight, and all who seemed very disappointed that they wouldn't be getting lunch and a show. Turning around to the two across from me, I saw that they had just traded a look before their gazes settled on me. It was the mousey one that spoke up, "Uhhh… thank you? But, uh, who are you?" He questioned as I started to chow down on Pop-Up's lunch and he seemed a little conflicted about that.

"Didn't do it to help you, so save the thanks. And I'm Sebastian," I answered, popping open a nice, cool, chocolate milk. It was so bad for you, but so were drugs, and they were pretty great.

The two took that as a sign to introduce themselves, "I'm Peter. Peter Parker, and this is Ned, my best friend." Peter said, Ned offering a small wave from the other side of the table before grimacing, thinking the wave was unnecessary. I thought it was pretty adorable that he was introducing him as his best friend. Didn't know those still existed. "That was Flash Tompson, he's kinda…"

"A bully," Ned spoke up. "Our bully," he added as if it needed clarification.

Someone named their kid Flash? That was pretty wild. "Huh. What's his deal?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow at the two as I quickly polished off Flash's lunch with a speed only the hungry were truly capable of before I started on my own. Peter shifted in his seat, glancing over his shoulder as if Flash might hear him.

"I dunno. I think he has something going on in his life. He always picked on us, but it's gotten way worse lately," Peter offered. Making Ned add his own two cents.

"Peter took his place as first chair for the Decathlon Team," Ned spoke up, making Peter flush. "Plus, we're in band and Peter's also in the robotics club. I think it's little penis syndrome and he's taking it out on us." And, yeah, that checked out. Though that sounded like a lot. I'm not sure what a decathlon even was, but band on top of robotics sounded like a lot. Did he not want to go home or just love learning or something? I don't know. I'm not sure if it really mattered either.

"And you let him?" I asked, catching both off guard and Peter shrugged his shoulders before looking away. "Kick his ass. Or give him a smack. Guys like him push because they don't get any resistance when they do, so they just keep pushing the line. Beat his ass a bit, even if you lose the fight, and he'll step off." God, I fucking love cheese sticks. And chocolate milk. This alone made coming here absolutely worth it.

Ned seemed thoughtful while Peter scratched at his neck, clearly uncomfortable with the thought of violence. "I don't know. It's not like he ever gets physical. He just talks trash. Do you really think violence is the answer?" He asked, and if he was going to set me up like that, then I had to say it.

"No. Violence is the question. The answer is yes," I quoted, earning a laugh from Ned, and a flush from Peter who was deeply ashamed of walking into that one. "If you're not going to lay him out, then don't pay any attention to him. He's some random blowhard. His opinion only has the worth that you assign it. Same for everyone else in this school. You have to share a building for eight hours a day but how many of them have you had a conversation with that lasted for more than five minutes? How many of them do you know? How many do you think you'll talk to after highschool ends?"

I never got that. Maybe it was because I never went to a traditional school, but the idea of… valuing random people's opinions was absolutely unthinkable. There was a telling silence from the two, so I continued. "Then why are you letting them determine your self-worth? The only opinion that should determine that is your own," I said, jabbing a finger at the two of them before I began to stand up and stacked my styrofoam plates up once I was done with them and knocked back the last of my chocolate milk like a shot. So fucking good. It was one of the few things humanity managed to get right.

"You're leaving? Uh, do you think-" Peter started to speak up, and I knew what he was going to ask. He basically imprinted on me because I was nice to him. I got the impression that he wasn't familiar with that.

"Probably not. I don't go to school here. Actually, your school pretty much kidnapped me," I informed, giving Peter a moment to process that while Ned tilted his head, trying to do the same.

"Wait, what?" Peter asked, standing up as I began to walk away to throw away my trash. "What do you mean you don't go here? The school kidnapped you?"

"Right off the street. Pretty traumatic, to be honest. I think I'm going to sue," I replied, tossing my trash and going to the exit. At least, that was the plan before I saw something truly incredible.

Flash was marching back into the cafeteria and he brought a teacher in tow. My jaw dropped as he angrily searched the cafeteria, his eyes landing on me before he pointed in my direction. He said something to an overweight teacher that I couldn't hear but I could imagine what it was when the teacher started to approach.

He told on me. Holy shit, I didn't know you could even do that. He got the stuffing slapped out of him, and he ran to a teacher and told on me. I knew schools said that's what you should do - I just never thought that anyone had actually ever done it before. It felt like I was watching a unicorn or something because I don't think anyone else in the history of forever was going to see something like this again.

"Young man, did you slap Flash Tompson?" The teacher asked me, a deep frown on his face. I opened my mouth to confirm that I did, mostly because I thought it would be funny, but before I could get a word in, Peter spoke up.

"No, he didn't. I, uh, did," Peter stated, blushing when the attention shifted to him. Huh. Look at him. I didn't think he'd be the ride or die type. Goes to show that not all surprises are bad ones. I gave him a smirk that made him stand up a little straighter and the teacher visibly seemed like he didn't care and couldn't be bothered, so he just shook his head.

"Look, I need the two of you to come up to the office to get the story straight-" the teacher began, only to be cut off when there was a loud bang somewhere off in the distance. Everyone went silent before looking to the source through a window. I broke off, heading towards one just in time to feel what had to be a shockwave travel through me, making me feel all weird for a second.

That was weird, I thought, sounds of panic echoing through the cafeteria as more kids began to crowd around the windows to see what was going on. For a long second, I didn't see what it could be. Wasn't like there was a convenient mushroom cloud rising over the skyline of New York or anything to help spot it. I only saw the source when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye, forcing me to look up.

There was a hole of swirling energy in the sky directly above what I'm pretty sure was the Stark building. I would have assumed it was there because Tony Stark was doing some weird science stuff, if it wasn't for the things that were pouring out of the hole in space. It was too far to tell what they really were beyond that they had gray skin with golden-looking armor while they rode on flying bikes that looked like the speeder bikes from Star Wars. While they were too far away to tell what they looked like, it was quickly apparent that they weren't friendly.

I caught flashes of light as the things from the sky began firing upon the streets of New York. At first, I had no idea what they were. Then as the creatures began to get closer, spreading out over the city, I saw the damage.

"Oh my god, we're being invaded by aliens," I heard someone breathe next to me and that's when it clicked in place. Those were aliens. Like, real aliens. And they were attacking New York City. I gazed up at the sky to see that there were thousands of them that were pouring out of the rift above Stark Tower, flying down to lay waste to the city. I started to see smoke drifting up, telling me that already, the damage was intense.

I couldn't do much about that, I decided, a hand going to my shirt to reveal an hourglass pendant within a circle. Especially not right now, completely unprepared. However… it rubbed me the wrong way - an alien invasion that opened up on a civilian population? That was just wrong. War was stupid in general, but if there had to be one, you killed soldiers and only soldiers because they're the ones that signed their names on the dotted line.

These punks needed to be shown their place.

With that thought in mind, I turned the hourglass in my pendant. Five times. All around me, the world began to blur, letting me catch glimpses of what had been. I saw the kids around the windows walk back as if someone had pressed reverse on the remote, first going to their seats, then leaving the cafeteria entirely. The sun began to reverse its trajectory as time was rewound by five hours, an hour for each turn of the hourglass pendant.

When the time reversal was done, I found myself standing alone in the cafeteria with sounds coming from the kitchen as the lunch ladies began to prepare for the day ahead of them a few hours before school opened. I held up my Time-Turner, seeing the small grains of sand drift down to the other end, marking how much time I had. Five hours on the clock.

"Alien invasion, huh?" I muttered, stepping back and going to the seat that I had sat upon with Peter and Ned. Taking out a sharpie, I drew on the surface of the seat - to anyone else, it would look like graffiti, but to past me, it would be a clear message. A small alien spaceship, an outline of New York City's skyline that was on fire, and a symbol that represented the rooftop. "What am I going to do about that?"

Dealing with an alien invasion was a bit above my paygrade, but that wasn't a reason to not try. Leaving the cafeteria, I made my way to the locker room. I saw Mrs. Crane in the hallway and a simple smile and a nod was all that was needed to keep her at bay. While school currently wasn't open, it was hardly like it was unthinkable for a student to be seen in the hallways before the doors officially opened.

In the locker room, I began marking the lockers with my payday symbols - marking the ones that had no cash, the ones that did with a slightly different symbol, and on the big payday, I also added a doodle of Flash fucking with Peter and Ned with an eye, meaning for past me to look out for the scene.

When I got the Time-Turner, I worked out a pretty solid list of symbols to convey messages to past me, so they would point past me in the right direction with fewer hiccups. Going back further would be generally pointless, not unless I was planning to get out of the city. Which I wasn't. Warning people that there would be an alien invasion? Good way to sound crazy. I wouldn't believe me, no one would, until it was too late.

Meaning that my best shot would be to prevent that wormhole thing from opening in the first place. Not really sure how I could manage that. I wasn't even sure how I could get to the top of Stark Tower - it was designed by a super genius that made the rest of the population look like we were morons that had to constantly wipe drool from our chins. I would put a pin in the idea, but for now, I needed to focus on being equipped for a response of some kind.

To do that, I would need my shit. Capping the sharpie, I made my way out of the school entirely before catching a bus to deliver me to my home over in Highbridge. It was right down the road from Midtown, leaving me a few minutes to consider what my next move would be. I did have the Time-Turner, so I could go by trial and error. See what worked and what didn't. Saving people would be nice, but my priority was smacking some alien ass and showing them that attacking Earth was a bad, bad, bad idea.

"Hollywood is going to milk this to hell and back," I muttered, getting off the bus as I scratched at my cheek. Highbridge was a bit of a tourist trap while also being a shitty neighborhood. I'm pretty sure that the two were related. There were a number of homeless people here, attracted to the tourists like moths to a flame. Our first contact with aliens beyond crackpot theories and they immediately open fire on New York. There was going to be an unending tide of alien invasion movies in the near future. I could see it now.

With a shake of my head, I entered a filthy back alley, glass crunching underfoot from fiends dropping vials when they were done with them. Hauling myself up the fire escape, I made my way up to a rooftop of a building that gave me a half-decent view of the Harlem River. My home was an old rooftop water tower that hadn't been in use since the sixties, at least. The side of it was busted out, revealing that the tower was paper thin and mostly rust, but it made for a half-decent doorway.

The room was round and the door was only a sheet that I had tacked up. Inside, there was a sleeping bag and that was it. People knew that I slept here and leaving things out in the open was a good way to get robbed. Flipping open my sleeping bag, I did see that even the few visible possessions that I did have were taken - a wallet, a can of pringles, and a extra pair of sneakers. Bait that I left so people wouldn't take the magnet, the chewing gum, and the rubber band.

Popping the gum in my mouth, I chewed it up for a few seconds before spitting it out and pressing it to the magnet which I then, in turn, used to secure it to the rubber band. Going to the center of the room, I found the pipe that was meant to either fill the water tower or distribute it to the rest of the building. Lowering the magnet into the hole, I heard a small click before I began to raise it back up. A fridge magnet came up and sandwiched between the two magnets was a golden scarab.

Real gold too. If it wasn't, then I wouldn't have to bother with the other magnet. Tossing it into the air, the golden scarab suddenly came to life and its wings began to hum as they fluttered. It shifted in the air, as if trying to get a bead on where it was and where it was going, before it suddenly shot off out of my humble home, completely leaving me in the dust. It would have been long gone if it wasn't for the GPS tracker I had gummed onto the side of it.

With a sigh, I set about tracking the damn scarab down and, with some luck, I did see that it decided that the "Cave of Wonders" was nearby instead of forcing me halfway across the city. Again. The location changed every time, but it was usually localized around New York. Once it brought me to New Jersey, and that was never happening again. There didn't seem to be any kind of criteria that the golden scarab used in deciding what would be the entrance and as far as I could tell, it was completely by random.

Still, as much of a pain in the ass it was to get to the "Cave of Wonders", I couldn't say it wasn't worth it when I saw that the golden scarab was hovering in front of a manhole cover. Upon seeing me, it split itself apart, landing on the manhole cover, and was rendered inert. I ignored the people watching me as I lifted the manhole and climbed down the ladder to enter the cave.

Instead of the sewer, I saw nothing but rough-hewn natural rock formations and long dark shadows. The cave was a shallow one in this case - that changed on occasion. Once I had to make my way through a genuine labyrinth to reach my shit. In this case, once I reached the bottom of the ladder, I saw the octave that was meant to act as the "Cave of Wonders." Quotation marks were valid on account there was jack shit here when I first arrived.

It was slowly filling up, but it wasn't like there was much even now. A shelf that I was slowly filling up with comic books and novels, a suitcase that I stole that had a few extra sets of clothes inside, and there were a few odds and ends scattered about but, for the most part, the "Cave of Wonders" was depressingly empty. Ignoring most of my stuff, I turned to what would be immediately helpful.

Namely, a gun. A pistol that I'm pretty sure had been a murder weapon that I found after some guy dumped it near the river. Then I turned to my only other item of note - a pair of roller skates that were called Air Treks. They were… kind of awesome, to be honest. They didn't exactly ignore gravity, but they sure did treat it like a suggestion. Wearing them majorly upped my mobility. Grabbing them, and tucking the gun in my waistband, I was about as ready for the alien invasion as I physically could be.

Making my way out of the "Cave of Wonders" I picked up the two halves of the golden beetle and tucked them into my pocket. After that, all that was left was to head back to the school and deposit the items on the roof so past me could find them. And that was a task that was pretty easy when it came down to it with the help of the Air Gear.

Putting them on once I arrived at the school, I shifted my foot as I stared at a wall that was marked by large windows. Picking my path, I shot forward, leaping up as the wheels began to spin. Through physics that might as well be fucking magic, I was easily able to cling to the brick walls and speeding upwards. I clung between the windows, letting me slide upwards at sharp angles until I shot up, sailing over the edge of the roof, reaching it in as little as five seconds. My heart pounded in exhilaration, my stomach doing flips as I landed on the roof and I spared a glance behind me to see that the ground was pretty far down.

Taking a seat, I took the Air Treks off and took out a sharpie to make another doodle. An exaggerated version of Peter Parker with a thumbs up next to it. He was bit of a dweeb, but he had potential. I kinda liked him.

"All that's left is for the clock to tick down," I muttered, putting everything underneath the doodle - the scarab, the Air Treks, and the gun. I kept the Time-Turner, though. When two of the same Time-Turner existed in a single timeline, they… didn't get along. Found that out the hard way when I tried to dupe them so I could have a bunch.

I reached into my pocket and took out a pack of cigarettes that only had one in there. My last cigarette that I kept specifically for this occasion. Lighting it up with the lighter inside, I took in a deep breath of smoke and checked my Time-Turner to see that I had about five minutes left of my allotted time. Blowing the smoke out of my nose, I looked up at where the wormhole would be forming. I was as prepared as I-

You have earned an Item Roll

Items Available:

Spectator

Philosopher Stone

The One Ring

Ultra Divine Water

Red Queen

Gray Fox Cowl

Avalon

Explosive tags

Mochi Mochi Devil Fruit

Love Potion

Materia

Gundam

Aeolak

Computation Orb

Shimmer

Drink Me Bottle

Compass of Want

Gravitational Beam Emitter

Amulet of the Monkey King

Life Coins

Death Note

"Oh, good timing," I remarked, reaching into the screen that appeared before my eyes and pulling out a D20 from it that felt weightless in my hand. There was no real way to cheat the system. I tried. My Time-Turner had been the very first item that I had managed to get since my fresh start, and because of that, I learned that whatever triggered me earning an item roll wasn't tied into a timeline because I've gotten them as a future self and as a past self.

And that was pretty much all I knew about it. I had no idea what triggered me earning a roll. I had no idea what the items did until I managed to get them. The only thing I really had half a clue of was why it was happening to me, but I wasn't even sure about that. Well, I also knew that every single item that I had pulled was useful - the Time-Turner went without saying, but the Golden Scarab? Chasing it down was annoying, but I had a private space all to myself. The Air Treks? I hadn't been able to use it as much as I would like, but lateral movement at the speed of a car was pretty nice.

With little hesitation, I tossed the D20, making it bounce off the ledge of the building and it rolled for a few short seconds. A moment later, it came to a stop with a 4 pointed up at the sky. Not a great roll, but there were no bad items. Just ones that needed a bit more creativity to get all of the use out of them.

The dice became the fourth item on the list - Ultra Divine Water. It was in an old-looking clay pot with a Japanese kanji on it that I couldn't read, but I'm guessing that it read Divine Water. Blowing smoke out of my nose with the half-burnt-out cigarette dangling from my lips, I poked the pot and a window popped up, as it always did when I first touched a new item.

Ultra Divine Water

Divine Water created by Kami to draw out the utmost potential of whoever drinks this magical liquid. However, drinking the Divine Water has proven deadly for those unprepared. Of the thirteen that have drunk, none have managed to survive the poisonous and painful water.

Okay. Not great… but it was something. Not sure what kind of something, but it was something. Either way, it wasn't really my problem if past me drank it and died.

Flicking the ash off of my cigarette, I set the Divine Water with the rest of my stuff, not sure if it would be helpful at the moment or not. Taking a seat once again, I looked at the spot in the sky where the wormhole would be formed at. This time, I saw it happen. A torrent of energy erupted from the top of Stark Tower shortly before a rip in the fabric of space was torn right open, sending a shockwave out that I felt tremble through me.

I had always wondered what future me had felt like when the timeline course-corrected itself. Time had a bit of a glass jaw from my findings, and it didn't like disruptions. With a Time-Turner, I was supposed to be directly where I stood when I first used the Time-Turner so the time loop could close, but I wasn't. Just like I wasn't supposed to be making alterations to the timeline, but comparatively, those changes were minor. I was still going down the same path, more or less, just with the potholes filled up and smoothed over.

However, it was still enough for the timeline to decide that it had enough of my shit and it was going to crush me like a bug. To make sure that it was a future me instead of a past me, for the sake of convenience of not having to repeat steps, I decided that a future me would smoke a last cigarette and offer themselves as bait for the timeline so past me could progress the timeline.

"Looks like you have some exciting days ahead of you, past me. Have fun with them," I remarked, flicking my last cigarette over the edge of the building.

I ceased to exist before it even hit the ground.

…

Welcome to Gacha God! Took a little longer than I thought to get it out, but I'm glad that it's finally here. Gacha God will update on Saturdays at 10 am CDT. Below, I'll answer a few important questions about the gacha itself and how it will work as well as some general info about the "crossover" elements.

How does the item gacha work: Every four chapters or upon a narrative milestone, I will draw up a list of twenty items and roll a D20 to see what we get. As a disclaimer - I will roll the dice prior to writing the chapter to see what we get to figure out how to fit them into the chapter and the story itself. All rolls are final with no re-rolls.

Even if there's some really cool stuff on the roll. Personally speaking, I was really crossing my fingers for a Gundam or a Gravitational Beam Emitter. But, that's the gacha experience - rolling to get something, and getting something else instead. That being said, there are no bad items. Just some that need a little more creativity to be useful.

There is a one-roll cooldown on items on the list if they didn't get picked the first time around. There is also a one item per setting for the rolls. So, you won't see a list full of Xiao Lin Showdown items.

Additionally - the item list is always expanding. I have a google doc that will be posted below, so if you think of a unique item from a setting that hasn't already been covered or we missed one, then feel free to add it to the list.

"Crossover" Elements: I will be using stuff like the Netflix Marvel shows and some stuff from the comics as supplementary material. Mostly to flesh out the world from a street view because that's largely missing from the MCU. Mary Jane is the most obvious example of that - Michelle Jones and Mary Jane are very different characters, so there's no real overlap when it comes to personality. The only thing they have in common is their initials, really.

Additionally, I won't be using anything after phase 3, with the only exceptions being if they happened prior to Endgame in the timeline. Phase 4 hasn't felt like its brought anything interesting to the table that I would want to include in the story. That could change at some point, but for now, no Phase 4 material.

And I think that's it.

Hope you've enjoyed and buckled up. Sebastian is the most chaotic neutral character I've ever written and I promise you, you are in for a ride.