"How are you, grandma?". I put my grandma's medicine next to her bed before sitting down to get some rest.
"Arthur. It's not good that you keep pushing yourself so hard."
I could feel the regret in my grandmother's words. And it was quite painful, but I just sighed before putting on a better face.
"A minor matter. Besides, I have nothing better to do." Since I dropped out of high school I have been working to be the breadwinner at home. My grandmother was sick and she needed medicine so she wouldn't die. So I was all she had.
My parents died several years ago in an accident that I don't remember. My grandmother was the only person in my life that mattered to me.
I adapted pretty quickly to doing everything on my own. Although the fact of having reincarnated perhaps helped in that.
I never got any response. I just woke up with the greatest discomfort I could imagine.
But I adapted and kept moving forward. Although nearly dying from being at the wrong time put things in perspective. Especially when I found out what world I came to. That didn't give me much hope of making it to adulthood.
Marvel, a place of great heroes, but diametrically equal with lunatics who want to destroy everything. The first thing I did was look for all the information possible, being in the MCU would be nice. It wasn't the best place for a normal human, but it was something.
Too bad that didn't seem to be the case. Since after investigating many events came to me, too many I would say.
A great lineup of Avengers, also the fantastic 4 had a few years in the work. Same with Spider-man. Although I didn't find anything about mutants, most of them were anti-mutant forums with pretty twisted ideas.
So my conclusion was that this world should be 616 or a fairly close variant. And to anyone in the know, that was bad news.
"But you must go to college. You can't waste your gift," my grandmother reminded me.
I forgot to mention that he was also something of a scientist. My brain was almost like a supercomputer that could do many calculations at once. But it was something I tried to keep to myself.
Also in this world, most scams done by geniuses were now heavily regulated. And a new millionaire will not take long to be in the public eye. That if you don't have superpowers or powerful armor then you're just a fat sheep ready to be slaughtered.
"That can wait a bit." I reached out and held the hand of the person who raised me with so much love, especially someone who didn't deserve a second chance. "Besides, it's your birthday soon and I've prepared some things."
"Arthur....."
"I know, I'm amazing." I laughed and went to prepare dinner.
My grandmother's room was still quite close to the kitchen so she talked to me while she was preparing dinner.
"And how is Sally?"
"We're done, someone who seems to have no direction in life is strangely unpopular with women." I kept moving the knife but that didn't dull the sigh I was hearing.
"But I have a date with a cute waitress named Sara and the next day Sally's roommate asked me out for coffee. I am miserable." I feigned some sadness at my fateful situation.
"You never change. You have to find a good woman who loves you with your talents and your many flaws"
"I'll ignore the last one. Besides, you're my number one girl. I'm a priority man."
"You and your mouth. That's why you manage to charm so many girls. Too bad you suck at holding them back."
"I'm only 16, you put too much pressure on your dear grandson."
"...I just want you to be happy. Too bad I don't think I can see that moment."
My grandmother tends to get very depressed. And I don't blame her, locked in a bed and feeling like a burden was painful. Sometimes I just feel like doing whatever.
But my grandmother became that voice in my head that prevented me from doing crazy things. A big change for someone like me, but in this situation, I could still say that I felt happy.
"Maybe if I look through my old contacts we'll find a great-grandson, so don't give up hope."
"Don't make me get up you spoiled brat."
My grandmother sounded upset, but I knew her mood had improved a bit.
.....
When I got back to my room I turned on my laptop and started working. Nothing so illegal at the moment, maybe my grandmother's teachings were useful for something, or that's what I like to think.
I used to work as an accountant reducing the taxes of several people. I did it quite quickly and it gave me money to buy my grandmother's medicines, which were quite expensive. Giving me the morning to be able to work on something else.
But it was okay, I wouldn't mind if life went on like this.
...
"I'm sorry Maggy, but I have some plans today." I took out some money and paid for the birthday cake. "Yes, of course, I'll call you, I want to see you too."
It took me a few more minutes but I managed to reassure that girl, sometimes it was so hard to be so handsome.
I laughed at my narcissism, but no one could be perfect.
I took the bus and got to Queens. A relatively quiet neighborhood. But what bothered me was the smell of burning that I detected.
My expression cooled when I saw a column of fire in the direction of my house.
"No...nono.no" I dropped the cake and started running.
I almost lost my breath when I saw my neighborhood burning down.
I heard a lot of screaming but I didn't care, I ran down the destroyed street until I got to my house, or what was left.
"Shit". My house was on fire, but I didn't care when I tied a bandana over my face before I went inside.
I only had time to do one thing before I burned to death, and hell I would.
"Come on, some luck please," I asked whoever would listen to my pleas. But as always my luck sucked.
I did not remember this feeling, so familiar and nostalgic. My mouth was dry and I would scream if I had any air in my lungs.
But as always I swallowed all that pain and walked through my grandmother's burning room.
Use what you can to cover up my grandmother and leave, the house was about to collapse.
I no longer cared about the pain from the burns, seeing my grandmother's charred body froze my entire being.
When I got to the street I leaned on the ground while I was still holding my grandmother's lifeless body.
"In the end, everything ends the same." My vision became blurry, my eyes felt very uncomfortable and I couldn't see. But I didn't care since all I did was hug my grandmother's body.
....
"Have some coffee." A policewoman sat next to me and tried to comfort me. She was quite beautiful, but I wasn't in the mood.
"Thank you, but I want to be alone."
The police lady understood and she left the room before giving me one last look.
My vision was restored, I don't remember when was the last time I cried. But it's something I already got out of my system. Now I just want answers, who was the bastard that murdered my grandmother. Especially with the acquisition of my new powers.
It would have been welcome news a few days ago. But now I would trade it for just one more day with my family.
My hand rested on the table and by oversight, I almost broke it in two.
Breathe and calm the headache, I had to stay focused if I didn't want to lose control.
....
I was walking through the streets of New York aimlessly. In the end, there was no one responsible for what happened. Or they just didn't find out. I'll have to do something in the future about that, but for now, I'll focus on something else.
But as always I swallowed my pain and kept going. But that didn't mean I'd sit around doing nothing.
"And who are you?".
"That won't matter for a long time." My casual tone angered the distinguished guests.
"Break some bones and let's get back to business."
A steel tube came close to my head to hurt me, but when the tube reached my head it stopped without making any kind of noise.
"I guess you guys can do it." I grabbed the tube with enough speed to the point that it broke the attacker's hand.
"Shoot." Good choice, too bad they met the wrong person.
The bullets that hit my body ricocheted in the direction of the people who shot.
Everything happened so fast and in the warehouse, there were 10 people, 9 died. The only living person was the one writhing in pain on the ground.
"And where do you have the money?" I laughed at myself, in the end, I couldn't change. I always took what wasn't mine.
.....
In the end, I don't know what I wanted to do with all the money I had. I guess my mind finally relaxed a bit. Too bad that the almost 100 corpses that I left scattered around New York were late.
It was already dawn, and the only thing I had was a bottle of whiskey that didn't get me drunk.
But what I did have was a little hungry, and from my jacket, I pulled out a cheeseburger.
I wanted to eat quietly in this desolate alley like normal people but a small noise caught my attention.
I only had to amplify it to almost hear it a few meters from me.
Someone was watching me, more exactly my hamburger. I could hear him sniffing and salivating.
The sadistic part inside me told me to gobble up the sandwich in one go, but I was tired and still felt like shit. So I got up and approached my guest.
But that person was someone cautious, so I stopped before I shooed him away. Just left my burger before I left without even checking anything.
...
When I got up I went to look at myself in the mirror. A month had passed since my grandmother's death. And I was still angry, but I swallowed my anger and tried to practice a smile like every day.
It already seemed that I was the same again, but my skin has been losing some tones.
My new power prevented the sun's rays from reaching my skin. I'll have to do something with that in the future. At least my hair didn't turn white.
I'm still very handsome though. Too bad I'm not in the mood to go flirt with some girls.
But I could go slaughter some arms dealers.
Or I could look for some villain, I wanted something more challenging.
I didn't have a hero outfit, I just wore a hood that hid most of my face.
Maybe a part of me wanted to get into a lot of trouble. Maybe something exciting was what he needed. It seemed like my mood had improved a bit.
First I went for some breakfast.
When it was time to order I finally ordered another breakfast like the last few days.
I walked several streets without eating anything until I reached an alley.
Find a clean place to sit and eat quietly. Though it didn't take long for my guest to arrive.
I left a small bag of food a bit away from me so as not to scare my guest, but it seemed that he was quite shy.
I finished my food and left without checking.
Very strange behavior on my part, but maybe..... no, I was just a little crazy, no more, no less.
....
"Looks like Spider-Man has it rough." I was reading the newspaper while moving through Manhattan.
But I also started to think about the origin of my powers. I was a mutant? Probably, the only strange thing was that the x-men team did not arrive.
I don't know you can get information from mutants, segregation is pretty big in this world.
I kept rambling as I walked, but picked up various vibrations coming my way.
Looking up I saw a guy over two meters running with a crowbar in his hand.
"Wrecker I guess." An enemy of the Avengers. But it seemed that he was having a hard time since he was being persecuted.
People had already hidden. An important reaction to survive in this world of superheroes.
"Stay away or I'll break his neck." To think that I will become the damsel.
"Come on Dirk, you know how this will end."
I guess that was his name, but that didn't get my attention. What did catch my attention was the sexy green-skinned hottie. She had a very raunchy body and that tight suit didn't help me keep my eyes straight ahead.
But now I no longer wanted to be the damsel in distress. Wrecker brought the crowbar closer to my neck, so I started pulling it with one hand.
"But what!!!". Wrecker was surprised when a simple passerby was outmatching him. The most surprising thing was that that boy was only doing it with one hand.
But that wasn't the only thing, with his jaw uncovered I threw a blow that didn't seem very strong, but when my fist hit the ground below me it was destroyed. Along with the Wrecker's jaw and consciousness.
"But what just happened."
"Just me giving some justice my lady." I punched while she was still shocked, and ignoring the severely brain-damaged thug on the ground I went forward and kissed my green-skinned goddess's hand.
"Arthur Mercer, thank you very much for the help."
"Looks like you didn't need my help. You do have strength." She seemed genuinely surprised. And I don't blame her, although I always kept my body in shape, I wasn't the muscular type.
"You must be used to seeing strange things by now. So let's get to the hard part, what's your number?"
"What?" she had a puzzled expression. Since unlike her companions she is not usually the most popular.
.....
Jennifer Walters more commonly known as She-Hulk didn't expect this battle to end that way.
In front of her was a very handsome young man with black hair and very dominant electric blue eyes, and her body was not bad at all.
The normally confident Jen was taken aback by how things happened so quickly, but she recovered pretty quickly.
"I'm flattered, but I don't think you know what you're getting yourself into." Jen decided to pick up Wrecker and leave. But that young man seemed not to give up so easily.
"I think you're forgetting that I just knocked out one of your supervillains pretty easily. Plus I just want to increase my network of super friends. Since I'm new to all of this."
"Did you just get your powers? That makes more sense since someone with your strength should be pretty well known. You should do better hiding your face, though." Since topics from the heroic point of view were discussed, Jen lowered her guard a little more towards the young man she had in front of him.
"Maybe you could give me some advice, so why don't we go grab a cup of coffee when you're free?" Arthur was quite adept at using his words. Since he was using his unawareness of the heroic world in front of a veteran.
And Jen is pretty smooth with newcomers, so convincing herself that this was to help out a junior she wrote down her cell number on the paper Arthur gave her.
"My name is Jennifer, since you told me your ID I will do the same. But you should be careful. Also, don't get in trouble." Jen took Wrecker to go giving Arthur one last look.
Arthur saw the number on his hand and he stored it in his brain.
With a smile Arthur left as what had just happened was quite amusing.
....
"Are you sure about what you saw Jen?"
"I told you, this new guy knocked out the Wrecker in one fell swoop. I think we should keep an eye on them?"
"What did you say his name was?"
"Arthur Mercer, I have to say he made a big impression on me."
Using a computer she found the person in question in seconds. "And I don't doubt it, he's handsome. But from what he says here he is 16 years old. My god Jen, do you know he's wrong?"
"Of course, I know, who do you take me for?"
"I understand, but you don't go and give your private number to any new hero that shows up. It's very suspicious."
"Come on Carol, he's just a prospect. Who knows, in time he might join us."
"That's what you want, right?"
Jen rolled her eyes at her friend's teasing. "Say what you want. I'm going home now."
"Aren't you going to stay and read the whole file on your new boyfriend?"
"Do what you want, I'm leaving"
Carol was amused by that situation. And now she was a bit curious, so she searched the database to find something interesting. But the information she found was nothing to be amused about.