Rubbing my head, I slowly got up, moving aside some trash that had landed on top of me as I looked around, trying to figure out just what happened. The last thing I remembered was boarding a flight to Canada to visit some family.
I took a few sleeping pills to try and ignore the fact that I was about to travel thousands of miles over the Earth, and the next minute, I was here.
"This feels way too real to be a dream. What the hell happened to me?" I mumbled to myself as I slowly got up, using a nearby trash can to help me up.
Only to find it bent under my grip as I fell back down, crushing the trash can itself and landing face-first into a rotten sandwich. Getting up, I wiped the disgusting stuff off my face and got up, wiping my...I was about to say cloths but I only found that I was wearing a weird Superman costume or something.
It was mainly white with the classic red and yellow Superman symbol on my chest, with golden gauntlets, and a red cape attached to it. Wiping away the rest of the trash, I saw a nearby puddle and looked at wanting to see if anything else had changed, because for some reason, even though I didn't feel anything on my face, it still felt weird.
While it was a bit murky, I was able to make out the majority of the details, like the fact that I had black hair now instead of my old brown hair. My eyes were also a light blue now instead of, well, the same brown I used to always have.
In fact, if I didn't know any better, I'd say I looked almost exactly like Absolute Superman, which, if I were being honest, I was more of a fan of the Absolute Batman and Wonder Woman comics, but still, he had a pretty interesting storyline.
"Just what on Earth is happening here?" I asked myself, trying to see if I perhaps forgot something or was suffering from amnesia while doing my best to keep calm and not freak out.
That's when I noticed a small notecard tucked into my sleeve, which I didn't feel for some odd reason, but that was a question for later.
Hello Richard Grant, you're probably wondering just what the heck is happening right now, and who is writing this lovely note to you?
Well, to answer your questions, I am a deity, or if you would rather call me a multiversal entity that works too. Either way, many others and I can manipulate souls, and well, sorry tos ay, but you died, and your brain blocked out your death.
Trust me its better that way. Experiencing death can drive any mortal insane if not properly prepared, but right now, you have been gifted the appearance and powers of Superman and are currently on Earth Bet, otherwise known as the Worm Webnovel in your original world.
The current date is December 19th, 2009, although that's simply the date you landed in, as you aren't the only foreign entity on Earth Bet. You see many others, and I decided to play a game to see whose champion can gain the most influence on Earth Bet and create the biggest impact.
Although that isn't to say someone else arrived, say, twenty years before you, at best a year or two before you. Spread out a bit to avoid the public and the more secretive eyes giving you all different attention beyond perhaps thinking your say a Case-53 or something, hey maybe they'd give you a whole different case number.
Lucky for you, I was able to secure the powers of a Kryptonian, but the time period didn't favor me. We drew straws, essentially (although it was actually different colored stars), to decide on when we dropped each of you.
Still pretty good all around, but be warned that some others have a leg up on you, and things may have already changed. Here's a place to start looking once you get access to the internet. Africa doesn't matter, the nation or location, just Africa in general.
With best regards, your benefactor and sponsor.
I turned the note card over and over, trying to see if the guy with terrible handwriting had left anything else, like a PS or something. Only to find nothing, and in anger, I crumbled up and ripped the note, tossing the scattered pieces into the same puddle I used.
"You've got to be kidding me." I said to myself as I buried my face in my hands, using the crumpled-up trash can as a chair, only to further destroy it as it bent down further.
I then dug around this weird costume, trying to figure out if this damned thing had any pockets, which it kind of did. The costume itself had a belt, with only two pockets, and while one was empty, the other had a wallet in it with an ID and address.
Which I was hoping was an apartment or something like that, so that I wasn't homeless, which made sense as I was guessing the beings who did this didn't want their champions living in squalor.
Rooting around a little longer, I eventually found a newspaper with the date my sponsor told me about. On it, it was talking about a cape or something that called themselves Legend, staving off a gang called The Teeth. Weird name, but one that also felt...familiar for some odd reason, not Legend though, as all I could honestly think of was that one Will Smith movie.
I rubbed my eyes, unsure of what to do because right now I wanted to go into the sy and scream. To let go of all my frustration, and well, the fact that I did not truly know if this was really happening or not, because for all I know, I'm still on that plane dreaming and waiting to land.
Either that or I could really be dead, and this was some fucked up test in purgatory or something like that, to try and figure out where souls should go. To see what they would do with great power, whether that be as a Kryptonian like Superman or Supergirl, or perhaps the super-intelligence of Reed Richards or Lex Luthor.
Right now, though, I just needed to figure out where to go from here, because right now I was essentially a walking, talking advertisement for superpowered human or alien, in this case. Either way, maybe I should try and find a local library or something, figure out what universe I was in.
That and well give myself a bit of time to come to terms with well literally everything if this was really my new reality. That and the fact that The Teeth sounded really familiar, I mean, I may not be a junkie for superhero stories, but for some reason that name stuck out.
Maybe see if anyone else was making a noticeable appearance once I figured out what reality I was in. Because if this were a world where people somehow gained powers, well, knowing who the natives were and who wasn't could come in handy even if I was wrong, I could at least build up at least...and maybe use the library computer to find some form of employment.
I mean, sure, I could be a criminal and just rob banks, but well, I was wearign Supermans uniform, one of the most iconic symbols of fiction. You show this to anyone and the most likely answer they'll give you is "Oh, thats Supermans logo" or some variation of it.
Sighing, I just rubbed my cheeks, already frustrated from the idea of looking for a job in a reality where I probably didn't exist. This wallet was probably just the entity's way of being nice and giving me directions to a house or apartment.
Looking around, I noticed that the streets were a bit empty, despite the act it looked like it was only the afternoon. Looking around at all the tall buildings, I could tell I was in a city, and based on the newspaper, I found I was probably in New York City, the Big Apple, at least if that was a local newspaper and not some weird one reporting what was probably minor news in the grand scheme of things.
Right now, I may be a bit stronger than normal people, but there was no telling how much power I truly had right now. I mean, hopefully I could fly, get out of the public's sight, and they would think it was just some kid taking a joyride with their brand new powers or something.
Goign back into the alleyway, I slapped myself and calmed my nerves as I prepared for takeoff, hoping that I could fly. Then, with one jump, I flew straight into the air, passing the buildings so fast that they were a blur. Stopping just as quickly as I took off, I looked around and saw the clouds and the city below me.
It...It was amazing, the view and the way teh landscape shifted as I moved, changing how I saw the whole world. Normally, I'd be crapping my pants just from how high up I was, but right now, I just felt an eerie sense of calm. Like I've been flying all my life, and my first time flying as well, all at once.
"Holy...Holy shit." I whispered to myself as I began searching the city, figuring out where everything was located alongside a local library I could use.
Eventually I spotted one near teh edge of the city, out of the way of the more busy areas. So slowly flying down, I made sure to take my time and be sure to control my new body properly, because right now I needed answers, and well, I didn't want to cause more problems for myself than solve.
Descending in a nearby alleway, I made sure to be carefullyas i walked out of it and looked around, making sure no one would notice me as I was still wearing the costume. OF which I hoped I had some regular clothing at wherever the address was located.
Going inside, I made sure to avoid the librarian, who was an older man currently hauling a stack of books, putting them away carefully. Looking around, I found that the librarian's computers were near teh front desk, so to try and avoid his gaze at least to the best of my ability, whilst wearing a bright red cape and a white...spandex suit, or whatever it was made of.
Turning it on and finding a search engine called...Giggle? Probably some weird version of Google or something like that, a little weird, but if it accomplished the same thing, I didn't care.
The first thing I searched up was major superheroes, getting a basic layout of the public defenders, and then seeing any institutions related to them. Almost immediately, I got three familiar names: Eidolon, Alexandria, and Legend, each one a member of something called the PRT or Parahuman Response Team and the Triumvirate, the three strongest capes on the planet.
Which also reminded me of one of the more bleak superhero worlds I've read, a webnovel or something called Worm when I was starving for superpowered stories beyond DC, Marvel, or Image Comics.
Which meant I was in a world that was already teetering on the edge of chaos, beyond you know, Parahumans who could cripple governments under the right conditions, not even through brute strength, just good old-fashioned mind control or manipulation.
Then you had the Endbringers, alien constructs who destroyed entire cities, all the while holding back. With about twenty of those monsters sleeping somewhere, ready to awaken because Eidolon has a damaged shard, awakening them and forcing him to fight them.
Alongside an alien god thing that was the cause of all the parahumans' powers, alongside their dead mate, letting a secret organization gain access to a bunch of new abilties. Then you add in the dropped-in foreign entities like me, gifted with powers not native to the world.
Speaking of which, I looked up Africa, trying to see just what the hell my sponsor was talking about in the note. Only to be horrified at the pictures I saw, and the destruction caused there.
One of the pictures had a young black woman wth long white hair in her early twenties. A dead ringer for Storm or Ororo Munro from Marvel, a powerful mutant who can control the weather and more.
She wasn't the cause of the continent's destruction, not alone, at least as I scrolled down, finding a very familiar picture. It was a gigantic three-headed dragon, with wings that easily blocked the sky and golden lighting as the land around it shifted and changed.
King Ghidroah, more accurately, the massive monsterverse version, its massive body and power allowed it to take over half the continent, only to be stopped by Storm and the remaining Parahumans. The two clashing caused a never-ending storm to take root in Africa, with the land shifting as well.
I then began to find more possible traces of other transmigrators as well, Stark Industries, a person calling themselves Archer, who looked like they came straight out of the nasuverse. A young woman who wore the helmet of fate, drawing upon the power of Nabu, clashing against a nonhumanoid being that looked like Necrozma.
So far, those were the only people I could find; the troubling thing was that somehow, someone established a major technological company in a year ot two. Usually, those take much longer to do, well, then again, he probably had the intellect of Tony Stark if the name was any indication.
"This might be a problem." I whispered to myself as I left the library, ready to see what my new home looked like, if it was that anyway.