Ethan opened his eyes, his pupils adjusting effortlessly to the light streaming through the French window, accustomed to sudden changes in brightness. His hands brushed against the soft silk of the bedsheets, and lucidity came rushing back instantly.
He remembered nothing—his name, his background, nothing. It was like waking up after a drinking binge with no memory of the night before. That was exactly what was happening to Ethan. Clumsily, he sat on the edge of the bed and noticed he was naked, but that wasn't the important part. What mattered was that he was in a large room filled with expensive furniture—a room that clearly wasn't his.
Looking closely to his right, he noticed a mahogany door standing ajar. The light was on inside, and Ethan could see wall tiles, likely a bathroom. With a new sense of purpose, he got out of bed and walked toward it.
It was exactly as he thought: a bathroom, and a spacious one at that, featuring a shower and even a tub large enough for two. On the left wall hung two large mirrors; when he looked into them, a stranger stared back—very pale skin, light blue eyes bordering on gray, and pitch-black hair.
This wasn't him. Not at all. Although he remembered nothing from before he woke up, something deep inside told him this wasn't his body.
[HELLO, HOST]
As if things weren't strange enough, a distant, mechanical voice echoed inside his head. Ethan jumped, looking frantically around the room. "Um, hello?" he couldn't help but reply, mostly to check if he was dreaming or if he had truly lost his mind.
[HELLO, HOST. I AM A COSMIC FORCE SENT TO THIS UNIVERSE ALONG WITH YOU UNDER THE ORDERS OF ######, AFTER YOU ACCEPTED TO TRANSMIGRATE.]
"So, I'm not crazy."
[NO, YOU ARE NOT.]
"Do you know who I am? Where I am?"
[YES, HOST. YOUR MEMORIES ARE STORED WITHIN THE PSYCHE OF THIS BODY. IF YOU WISH, I CAN RELEASE THEM, THOUGH I MUST WARN YOU: YOU WILL EXPERIENCE DISORIENTATION AND POSSIBLY NAUSEA.]
"It doesn't matter. I want to know who I am."
Immediately, a sharp pain struck him with full force as memory after memory crashed into his mind like a waterfall hitting the rocks below. Half an hour later, Ethan was sitting on the edge of the bed again, his gaze vacant and his eyes unfocused.
"Shit."
That was the only word that escaped his lips, and no other word could better define his current state.
He was Ethan McGregor, son of Teresa and Oscar McGregor. He had graduated high school two months ago—a nineteen-year-old young man. That was where his normal life ended.
His parents had died two weeks ago. A car accident, the police said, but that wasn't true. His parents had died on a mission—a mission for Hydra, a terrorist organization deeply rooted like a parasite within S.H.I.E.L.D.
Yes, he was in Marvel—a place where the poor depended on mutations and the rich on technology, and where a single snap could end your life as if you didn't matter.
Luckily, he wasn't alone. His parents, highly trained agents, had taught him almost everything they knew: self-defense, weapons handling, and how to navigate the underworld. This house was proof of that; it was more of a bunker than a home, with thick walls, armored windows, a closed-circuit security system, and even an anti-missile basement thirty feet underground.
The important thing was that he seemingly wasn't anyone of interest to Hydra. From what he knew, his parents had always stated in their reports that he had no idea what they did for a living.
Without wasting time, he stood up, grabbed a robe from the closet, put on some sandals, and walked to his father's bar, where a floor-to-ceiling wine cellar awaited. With the ease of long-standing practice, he placed his hand on a bottle of '45 Petrus. An LED light scanned his hand, causing the entire shelf to slide away and reveal an elevator.
When he stepped out of the elevator, the bunker lights flickered on automatically, revealing a massive room of roughly five thousand square feet. The space was divided into three sections: a training area for both hand-to-hand combat and weapons—where he'd had countless sessions with his parents—and a living area with a functional bathroom and shelves stocked with supplies to survive at least four months without coming up for air.
But it was the third area that interested Ethan. It looked like a generic villain's lair: weapons were displayed in their respective racks, ranging from revolvers and assault rifles to knives, grenades, and even three RPGs.
But again, that wasn't what mattered now. He needed to know more about the world he had fallen into. He quickly went to the monitoring room, which controlled the house's security and housed a computer connected to the dark web.
The computer utilized a secure network, so he wasn't worried about being hacked as he entered the most dangerous corner of the internet. Once inside, he began to investigate.
— Stark Industries faces a crisis even two months after the deaths of Howard and Maria Stark —
— The world faces a global crisis following the launch of the entire nuclear arsenal —
— Nearly fifty years since the sacrifice of Captain America —
Mentions of major events made Ethan's head spin. Apparently, this world had mutants; he knew that because of the nuclear missiles—that must have been the work of Apocalypse. Although he found no mention of the word "mutant," he did find a school for gifted youngsters located in Manchester.
[HOST, ARE YOU READY TO LEARN ABOUT YOUR SYSTEM?]
Just as hundreds of catastrophic events were racing through his mind, the System's voice spoke again, allowing him to pull himself together. At least he had a way to gain power in this chaotic world.
[I AM AN ANIMAL EVOLUTION SYSTEM. I SPECIALIZE IN EVOLVING ANIMALS THROUGH THE CONSUMPTION OF MONEY. DURING THE EVOLUTION PROCESS, ANIMALS ARE RANDOMLY GRANTED ABILITIES—WHETHER PHYSICAL, MENTAL, OR THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW ORGANS—ACHIEVING A LETHALITY FAR BEYOND THAT OF THEIR BASE SPECIES.]
Ethan didn't know what to think. When considering the powers many beings in this world possessed, the idea of having mutated pets didn't seem very appealing—especially if the System evolved others and not him. But the System quickly reminded him of something vital to keep him from getting discouraged.
[HOST, YOU ARE MISTAKEN. FIRSTLY, ANY ANIMAL YOU EVOLVE WILL BE 100% LOYAL TO YOU. FURTHERMORE, ANY ABILITY THAT SAID ANIMAL ACQUIRES, YOU WILL ALSO ACQUIRE.]
His mood improved instantly. He thought of beetles—tiny creatures that can carry 1,141 times their own weight—or the striking power of a mantis shrimp, the speed of a cheetah, or even the skin toughness of a honey badger. The possibilities were endless.
With that in mind, he wanted to start immediately but realized he didn't even know how to proceed. "System, how do I evolve animals?"
[IF YOU WISH TO EVOLVE AN ANIMAL, YOU MUST FIRST CAPTURE A LIVE HOST. ONLY THEN CAN THE EVOLUTION BEGIN.]
"So, what counts as a 'capture'?" Ethan asked.
[CAPTURE IS SIMPLE. AS LONG AS THE HOST CAN CATCH, HOLD, OR CONTAIN AN ANIMAL, AND THAT ANIMAL HAS NO PRIOR OWNER, IT WILL BE CONSIDERED YOUR PET AND WILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR EVOLUTION.]
With that, Ethan immediately opened the black market for exotic species, ready to buy a suitable animal for evolution. Looking at the available list, he couldn't help but salivate with excitement.