Capítulo 2: Discovery
"Hey, Damian!" I heard a call from down the street.
I turned around to see a young boy, about the same age as me, running to get closer. Behind him was a cute little girl with firey red hair and piercing Green Eyes. My eyes went wide as I instinctively knew who they were. Both my adult memories and my current childhood ones allowed me to determine that the boy was more than likely Peter Parker and the girl was Mary Jane Watson. As the two of them approached, Peter gained a look of worry on his face.
"Damian, are you ok?" He asked as he slowed down.
"Y-Yeah, I was just shocked, you know? You and MJ seemed to have made up?" I said, vaguely recalling how they'd recently gotten into a fight.
"Ah- well... that's." Peter awkwardly began to rub the back of his neck while looking away while MJ smiled widely and blushed a bit before getting close to him to snuggle up.
"Hehe~ Peter here saved me from a mean dog!" She said, bragging somewhat.
I raised my eyebrow. I was a decent fan of spiderman, seeing almost all of his movies and animated shows, heck I even read a few comic books, but I don't think something like MJ being saved from a dog attack by Peter as a child ever happened. Then again, I didn't remember EVERYTHING from what I'd read and I also didn't read every comic about him.
I was ejected from my pondering by another call from behind. "Hey Kids, how's it going?" I heard and turned around to see a tall handsome man with blonde hair and blue eyes wave at us. What shocked me the most, however, was that he was wearing a police officer's uniform.
"Oh, high Captain Stacy!" Peter smiled and waved at him.
"Hello, Peter, Damian, Mary. How's the morning going?" He asked.
"Good! Peter and I made up!" MJ said happily.
"I see! That's good!" He said before turning around and giving a slight nudge to what I could only assume was his daughter, Gwen Stacy, who was delving too deeply into the pages of a book to properly greet us. "Gwen, greet your friends." Captain Stacy whispered.
Gwen looked up from the book after a small sigh. She glanced at me and gave a short nod of acknowledgment before her eyes went wide seeing MJ still cuddling up to Peter. She quickly slammed the book shut and slung it under her arm before marching past me.
"What are you doing? Can't you see you're bothering him!" She declared.
"Am not! I'm not bothering you, right Peter!?!" MJ yelled back, turning to the hapless kid.
"Huh? What's happening here?" Peter asked, confused.
"What are you, a Japanese harem protagonist?" I heard Captain Stacy mutter under his voice.
I turned to look at my fellow man of cul- I mean the adult who was watching over the same awkward scene as me. He saw that I had caught what he said and blushed ever so slightly in embarrassment before turning his head away. He had clearly said what I was thinking myself, but since I don't think he is the protagonist of whatever fanfic I've found myself in, that means Mr. Big Bad Police officer is a secret anime fan.
I smiled deviously. "Hey, Captain Stacy!" I said loud enough to get all of the children's attention. "What's a harem protagonist?"
Captain Stacy looked taken aback for a second while I was trying my best to mimic an innocent face. I had trapped him in an awkward position and now he'd have to tell us what a 'harem' is, which I'm sure would make him feel awkward to explain to children.
"Pfft~" I heard a chuckle from behind.
I turned to see MJ, Gwen, and Peter all looking like they wanted to laugh. I raised my eyebrow in confusion. "What?"
Peter smiled awkwardly. "D-Damian. A harem is.. you know... having multiple moms."
I was taken aback by his explanation. He said it in such a way as to say 'Isn't it obvious?' to me, and judging by MJ and Gwen's reactions, they too knew what it was.
"Now now. Don't make fun of little Damian here." Captain Stacy said with an amused smile. "Using the word 'harem' is quite crude after all. Most people call them wives." He said, patting me on the back as if to reassure me that I shouldn't be embarrassed.
MJ finally calmed down about now and opened her mouth. "Wow, Damian. I didn't know you were so naive! No wonder Jean is having trouble!" She said.
Gwen added. "I guess because your parents were monogamous, you never really got the chance to know about it huh?"
My face was now bright red. If what was implied here was true, then that means that monogamous couples were actually pretty rare and that having multiple spouses was common. /1\
Information like that would have been common knowledge, but the fact that I didn't know that was shocking. Even my other memories, originally from this body didn't notice, so it wasn't just me misremembering or being stupid. I had no actual reference from this.
If there really was an entity out there who was watching my struggles and life like it was fanfic, this was definitely on purpose. It's probably laughing its ass off at my clueless behavior.
"Hey, don't bully Damian!" I heard a slightly concerned shout from behind me.
I turned to see another redhead with green eyes. She was just as cute, if not more so than Mj despite having the same physical characteristics. 'Jean Grey? Really!?!' I thought in shock.
Jean walked over to me and grabbed my arm. "What happened?" She asked me.
"Ah- I just..." I was still shocked at all of these recent developments and my head was spinning from processing all of today's events.
"He didn't know what a harem was!" Peter chirped before MJ or Gwen could say anything.
"Oh!" Jean said, having an epiphany. Before turning to me and looking me dead in the eyes. "I'm the first wife then!" She declared to me.
"Uh... sure?" I said with confusion.
Captain Stacy shook his head. "Alright, ladies, let's not get ahead of ourselves." He said, trying to end the conversation. "The bus will be here any minute. Have fun alright. And Damian, don't let them walk all over you, alright? A man's gotta be strong for his wives." He said as he exited the scene.
'The fuck is going on!' I yelled in my head.
"Oh, that reminds me!" MJ said, taking off her backpack and pulling out a few envelopes before handing them off to Jean. "Aunt Elaine's got mail."
Jean took the envelopes and stuffed them into her own backpack. "Thanks! Tell Aunt Madie that my Mom wants to see her!" Jean replied.
"Got it!" MJ gave a curt nod, just in time for the school bus to arrive.
We all border the bus at the time. It was lightly crowded, but there were still a few seats available in the front. Peter, Gwen, and MJ took one seat while Jean and I walked to the middle of the bus and found one next to another young lady.
"Mind if we sit here?" Jean asked.
"Nope." She responded.
I raised my eyebrows when I saw the little girl sitting there. She was also a redhead, though her hair was closer to orange in color than the deep reds of MJ and Jean. It was probably an off-shade of Auburn or something, so I didn't mind it too much and sat down next to her.
"Thanks. I'm Damian by the way." I greeted her.
"And I'm Jean!" Jean said as she sat next to me.
"My name's Samantha, but everyone just calls me Sam," Sam replied.
"Cool! What class are you in?" Jean started making friends with Sam immediately while I zoned out.
All of the information from today was making me a bit woozy. I was somehow reborn as a child in another world that seemed to be a mixture of Marvel and DC together. Not only that, but I'm best friends with Peter Parker and his two little lovers. The current host of the Phoenix Force has a childhood crush on me, and for some ungodly reason, it's totally normal for a guy to have harems here.
I peered around the bus and quickly discovered the reason why. It was because women seemed to make up a majority of the population here as opposed to in my regular world. As I looked around, I counted the number of guys to girls and came up with a ratio of 7:2 women to men. It was possible that with such a small sample size, the actual number was higher or lower than my count, so I didn't treat that number as gospel.
I rubbed my temple to stave off the coming headache, only to be knocked out of my stupor by Sam. "Hey, Damian! Are you a fan of Superman?" She asked with a wide smile, probably referring to my T-shirt.
I looked back at her expecting face and smiled. "Yeah, I guess you could say I am! He's super strong and helps out everyone, right?" I asked.
"Yeah! He's much better than the other heroes!" Sam said back.
I smirked amused. It seemed like even in a world where superheroes were real, it didn't really change the classic playground arguments on which one was best. "Shouldn't you like Wonder Woman more then? She's just as strong as superman, right?"
"Eh?" Jean made a noise indicating her disbelief. "Wouldn't she be an old woman by now? That's why she isn't a superhero anymore." She revealed.
"Yeah! Wonder Woman is like Captain America, right? They fought in World War 2. I bet they're all old and wrinkly ow like my grandma!" Sam commented.
"I suppose." I finished. It appears that quite a few things changed. Captain America retired and wasn't frozen under the ice of the Arctic huh? I could kinda see Wonder Woman being 'retired' after World War 2, as she probably went back to Themyscira for some reason.
We continued chatting throughout the bus ride and I found that Jean and Sam got along rather nicely. Eventually, there wasn't even room for my input in the conversation anymore, as the two discussed all sorts of little girl things. Surprisingly enough, I also found that both didn't really care for dolls at all and were somewhat tomboyish, but not completely, as they both admitted to wanting to try on more 'mature' makeup rather than just the lipgloss they both had access to.
Finally, we arrived at the school. There really wasn't much exciting going on today. I did find it odd that 5th graders like us were already learning decently advanced Algebra equations but dismissed it as us being in the advanced classes. Thankfully, Samantha was also in our classes, much to Jean's delight. This allowed me the time to properly think during class about how weird the world was as well as to study my surroundings to identify any and all possible issues that could occur.
One of the observations I'd mentioned was that both Peter and Gwen were, expectedly, the smartest kids in the room at any given time. The other kids in the class weren't stupid either, but none of us could keep up with the both of them separately, especially when they were together. As a matter of fact, if not for my advanced knowledge, I'd probably be unable to keep up with them at all. It also appears that the Damian before my memories awakened was on the lower end of intelligence in the class, tied with MJ for last.
"Traitor! When did you get so smart all of a sudden!?!" She yelled, during one of our breaks.
One of the plus sides to being a part of the nerd group was that we could all spend lunch in the library and no one would bother us. Peter and Gwen were born for this place, and they loved to study here whenever they got a chance. Peter would split his time between studying himself and tutoring Marry Jane so that she could keep up with the rest of the class. I'd joined her from time to time in the past, but now I didn't need to.
Sam had her own set of friends, probably why we hadn't met before today even though we were in the same class. She invited Jean to go eat with them, to which she agreed. Jean wanted me to go with her, but I gave the excuse that I'd rather 'study' with Peter to get out of it. I'd use that time to get myself caught up on the world's history in the library.
I found quite a bit of info in there, but most of it seemed like it was either the same as my previous life, or mundane enough that I couldn't spot the changes. Of course, there were glaring differences too, like a vastly expanded periodic table, among other things.
One prominent example would be there were more fundamental forces of nature than just the common Electromagnetic, Strong Nuclear, Weak Nuclear, and Gravitational forces. There was also something called the Dimensional Force, which was the least explained and, from the dates on the books, the most recent of the discoveries.
I could see that. The Dimensional Force was posited to be what gave superheroes their powers, as no one else could explain why Superman could fly given he didn't generate any thrust. It posited he'd gain mass and density through this force to become invulnerable to bullets or bombs. It was even posited that he can draw out the raw power of this dimensional energy via his laser vision, which would explain why his own eyes weren't fried by them.
There was actually quite a bit of scientific theories on superman in textbooks, though it was dispersed between blatant propaganda as to why he's an inspiration to everyone to be better people. I get that they want students to look up to superman to be better people overall, but it was very heavy-handed for a science book. I wanted more information on how his contributions to the sciences, simply by existing were revolutionary, not a lecture on how to be a better person.
I swung the book cover closes with a thump and sat back in my chair. I'd just finished reading a book called the 'Mutant Condition' to see how much the world cared about that, since if I got any powers at all, it was likely to be because I was a mutant.
'Damn. So mutants exist but are so low in numbers that people think mutations are a special medical condition rather than 'the next step of human evolution, huh? That's quite a drastic change. Wonder if it's because of Scarlet Witches' 'No more mutants' spell in 616.' I pondered, looking at the cover of the book I was reading. Its author was none other than Charles Xavier, who looked nothing like Patrick Steward if the photos of himself within the book were to be believed.
My stomach began to grumble loudly a moment later. I looked around with a slightly red face, completely embarrassed. Thankfully, it seemed no one heard it, or if they did, they were keeping it to themselves. I'm not sure if that was an improvement, so I decided now would be the best time to eat lunch.
I hopped out of my chair just in time to hear the bell toll. My heart sank. I'd spent so much of my time perusing the library's contents that I'd completely missed the time to eat. It was a special day too, as lunch was extended due to a lack of teachers.
Something about a strike for better pay, but I didn't pay it too much attention to it when I heard about it earlier.
"Damn! I guess I'm not eating today." I muttered to myself. The various occupants of the library had already filtered out and scurried off to their classes for probably the last period of the day.
My stomach growled at me once again as I picked up my backpack and slung it over my arm. It was pretty common for my only real meal to be the school-provided lunch. My mother would almost always make breakfast, but my previous self would avoid her as much as possible, so he'd always skip breakfast, and eventually, she just stopped making my share.
It didn't get much better for dinner either. By the time I'd get home, mom would probably be drunk and obviously wouldn't be in the mood for making the son she not-so-secretly hated, dinner. If she ordered pizza, I'd be lucky to snag a single cold slice once she'd passed out. I couldn't even heat it up in the microwave because the noise might wake her and that's only IF I could reach it with my small body.
I sighed deeply. "What I wouldn't give for a cheeseburger right now." I moaned to myself as I stepped off to head to class.
I stopped dead in my tracks when I heard a popping sound from behind me. There was a wafting of deliciousness that wasn't there before. I turned my head slowly, only to be shocked by what I saw before me. Sitting there, on top of a glistening white piece of delicate fine china, was a large cheeseburger. It looked delectable, cheese was oozing out from between the patty and the bun, and small dollops of ketchup, mustard, and mayo peaked out from the corners. Crispy green lettuce stood defiantly against the warm quarter-pound of meat that was the main course of the burger.
"What the fuck?' I asked myself in a low voice. My eyes narrowed on the mayo and I recoiled.
"Uh.. I kinda don't want mayo on it." I said to no one and also to whoever was seemingly granting my wishes today.
Just like that, the burger shimmered for a moment and the mayo was gone. I walked up to the sandwich and peeled back the bun. Sure enough, there was no mayo hiding beneath it. I put the top back on the burger and picked it up. It was rather hefty in my hands. Nice and warm too. The scent it was giving off made my mouth water.
I took one bite and instantly my mind went blank. It was the best damn food I'd eaten in either life. I quickly devoured the meal in only a few bites, stopping only to drink from the water bottle that magically appeared nearby when I wanted it to.
When my feast was finished, I wiped my hands against my pants and smiled widely, ketchup still on my face. I instinctively knew the golden finger I'd received for being so unceremoniously thrown into this world. The ultimate superpower, second only to Omnipotence itself. It seemed like I had the ability to manipulate reality.
My smile widened. "Oh yeah, this is going to be fun."
.~.~.~.
/1\: Monogomous couples in this world are only about 10% of all couples and are usually between homosexual males, but not always. MC's parents were one of the very few monogamous straight couples in existence. It's seen as a little odd, but not like it hurts or offends anyone, being closer to a fetish than anything legally or morally wrong.
REFLEXIONES DE LOS CREADORES 
Golden_Slime
Golden_Slime I'll be writing more chapters later today, but for now, I hunger!
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