บท 1: The Walk Of Purgatory And A Reward
One step in front of the other. Again and again. The drain of walking these steps was a memory both familiar and unfamiliar at this point.
The grey stone, the rotten wood that made up the handrail and the perilous drop down into the clouds below ingrained into my mind. One step in front of the other. Again and again and again...and again.
It wasn't the first time I'd seen these steps. Wasn't the first time I'd technically died.
First time was when I was nine-years-old on a trip to visit family in America. My uncle and elder cousin took my kayaking on a lake. Terrible decision on everyone's part, really, because about twenty minutes in I capsized the kayak, fell out and got my foot caught in some weeds. I remember the utter fear, the desperation that flooded me as I tried to tug my foot free and then I remember blacking out. That was when I first appeared on the stairs.
I've got no clue what pushed me to walk up them. I've got no clue what's pushing me to walk up them right now. But, just like now, I started walking up them, one step at a time.
An unknowable distance up the flight of stone stairs, I woke up on the bank of the lake, coughing up water. The burn of my lungs from the abuse of being full of water, the pounding of my head from being deprived of oxygen for so long--all of it as clear as day to me, even now. I'd been dead for one minute and three seconds that day. How could I forget anything to do with that?
But not the stairs. As soon as I was back in the land of the living, I'd forgotten about them. I could only remember the stairs when I was walking up them.
Which didn't take too long for my second visit. Aged thirteen, I was struck by lightning while playing in a field with friends. Twice. Stopped my heart dead in the it's tracks. Then I remembered the stairs, just as I resumed where I'd left off last time. Then I was resuscitated, four minutes and seventeen seconds later. I forgot about the stairs once again. I went through a few more of those situations before I got to the current one...and this time I knew it was for keeps. There's no resuscitating someone with a torso shredded to shit by bullets.
So, I just kept on walking. It was all I could do, in all honesty. Just like the genocidal mad lad Eren Yeager said, I kept moving forward. One step after another. Again...and again.
The clouds below got further and further away, the grey stone slowly turning lighter and lighter. The rotten wooden handrails attached to the stairs slowly became better and better kept, where once my hands caught and crumbled the wood they touched, now they glided across the smoothed surface.
I wondered if this were some sort of test from God. Mind you, I wasn't particularly religious and this could all just be the conjured up dream of a dying brain--but what if? What if this is the afterlife? Or some version of it? I felt a dry chuckle rip through my chest and up my throat. What a sick, twisted afterlife this would be if that's the case. And a test? Of what? Perseverance? Single-track mindedness to just walk and do nothing else? Maybe I should be doing something else instead of just walking?
A sigh followed on the coattails of the earlier chuckle and I shook the thoughts from my head like apples from a tree. I didn't need to think about what this was. If it were a dream or a test from an omnipotent being, it didn't really matter.
I was dead.
And what had I left behind? Nothing much other than a glittering career in the Royal Marines. Heavy sarcasm fully intended. My parents were long gone. My sister followed after our uncle and moved to the states - I hadn't seen hide nor hair of either my sister or my uncle and his family for more than a decade. Wasn't even their fault. When you've been in as my life or death situations as me (most, if not all ending up in actual death), you end up pushing people away and locking yourself up in a shell.
Why then, did I join the military? Because I thought if I were a trained soldier, I'd be able to better defend myself against a world that seemingly wanted me dead. Naive thinking, for sure, but what else do you expect off a seventeen-year-old? Not exactly an age renowned for their wise thinking and general worldliness.
But all that's neither here no there. Just a dead man thinking his sanity away as he walks it away simultaneously.
Suddenly, something felt wrong. So wrong my feet felt weird, my leg muscles threatening to spasm uncontrollably. My stomach twisted and turned, doing somersaults in my torso. For a split second I wondered if I was right, even partially, about how this was all conjured up as I died. That I was going passed the shock and feeling myself die.
Then I stopped.
...I really was an idiot.
I wasn't dying. This being a dream or not...well, the jury's still out on that. But I wasn't experiencing this oddness because of dying.
I'd reached the top of the stairs. The sudden lack of a step made me stop and after walking for who knows how many miles, the sudden stop of movement had taken my body by surprise. There were no more steps to walk. No more miles to tread forth. Nothing but a flat peak of polished marble with a chair placed at the top.
Atop that chair was a being of pure black. They were human shaped. Some would even say diminutive but they didn't see the thing I was looking at. The outline of whatever it was, was warped like those pictures of blackholes where they had a corona of light around them. It's head turned to me and the blackness smiled, "Hello, Jasper."
I narrowed my brow at it. Was this God? The Devil? A biblically accurate Angel?
The figure laughed, hunching over on it's chair and slapping it's knee. I stopped thinking. It continued laughing before slowly stopping and bringing a warp-covered finger to it's eye, wiping at a tear or whatever before it spoke again, "I'll never get over how you mortals react to seeing the divine. An existential crisis all within a few instances. Yhwh really had some fun creating those dazzling minds of yours. So very much like our own yet so...little."
"...Okay," I answered, unsure exactly how to respond to being laughed at and having my mind--every mind among humanity--called little.
"Oh, don't get so offended!" the entity waved a hand at me, as if to say 'oh stop it' and the face of darkness twirled into a wider smile, "I'm just messing with you. Out of all the creations the Gods have made, Humans are the most like us in both form and mind. If I was really insulting your species' intellectual ability, I'd be spitting in Yhwh's face. Last thing I need is that guy coming over here with his chicken-people and wrecking my peaceful realm."
"...Okay," I answered, once again unsure how to reply, "And I'm here, why? Shouldn't I be in Heaven or burning in Hell? Something along those lines," my question bordered on disrespectful but at this point, after walking up all those stairs, I was at the end of my tether. Whether he did some ungodly thing to me or not, it was better to cut to the chase rather than messing about like this.
I suddenly found myself sat on a chair next to the entity of more than likely divine origins, both of us facing a wheel. "Oh, you'd got to be fucking kidding me," I muttered under my breath.
"I don't kid, Jasper," the entity chuckled, gesturing to the wheel, "You're getting transmigrated! I've been waiting to do this for ages. Yhwh kept trying to kill you though, kept trying to take you to the afterlife--but don't you worry, little ol' Orion had your back. A little nudge here and there and I always had you back on your feet...well, until now. Getting shot was basically how you were destined to go out, so very little I could do there, I'm afraid." He went silent for a few seconds before clapping his hands, "Now, questions. You got any?"
A pointed look of multiple emotions was sent the entities way - Orion, if he were to be believed - from me before I could stop myself. A dire toned laugh weakly left my lips, "Questions? Yeah, I've got a few."
"Ask any then!" Orion replied, leaning against his chair's armrest and toward me.
"Why me then? As cliche as it sounds, that's the first question."
Orion seemed to smile a little more after that, his mouthless face replying to me an instant later, "Easy. You're a balancing factor. Some people are just like that - they enter the world with a goal in mind. They either make the world a better place, a worse place or keep the status quo. The latter of which can be supporting either of the other two. You, were a balancing force for making the world better."
"What?" I asked, confusion dripping from my voice, "I was a soldier. I killed people because my government told me - and the government probably had an agenda that wasn't exactly the betterment of humankind. You sure you've got the right Jasper?"
"One-hundred percent!" Orion replied without missing a beat, "Balancing factors don't always play a leading role. Most of the time, they actually help someone who will bring forth change. Remember that young girl and her older brother you helped in Iraq? Boy oh boy were they some good eggs. Older brother turned out to be a polymath while the young girl turned into a very successful activist. Both of them did a lot for the world, whether socially, culturally or scientifically." Orion stopped and leaned back into the back of the chair.
He must've seen my questioning face because he soon continued.
"All it took for that to happen, was for them to experience some kindness...say, like a young Royal Marine shielding them from the brunt of a building collapse at the risk of his own life. Or how when he recovered he helped them find new housing near. How he showed them they were worth something by spending time with them when he could, visiting when possible and checking up on them. Just simple acts of kindness that led to something bigger," he finished, steepling his hand together on top of his knees.
I looked at Orion, taking in the information for a few seconds. I remember those two. Nice kids - the older one, Adil, was a bit too clever at times, so I'm not surprised he ended up being some sort of genius. But Amina, the quiet kid who wouldn't speak up to ask for more food and had to be offered it, became an activist? Color me surprised, bloody hell.
But the thing that came back to my mind was; "Why?" I asked again, "What does that have to do with me? That's their own achievements, not mine. No matter how you try and spin it, they did the good stuff. Let them have this chance," I scoffed in denial of the situation. The fact I got to be transmigrated because I was a decent human being and because I was some mystical 'balancing factor', just sounded stupid. "And what's the deal with you picking me because I'm a balancing factor? You better not be asking me to become a hero and kill the Maou, Orion. All-powerful divine being or not, I will try and get you in a chokehold if this is what this is all about."
Orion looked at me for a few seconds before he burst out laughing again. A proper belly-laugh this time, shaking the surroundings with the mere action of his laughing. When he finally stopped, he disappeared and reappeared in front of me, in between myself and the wheel, "You think I'm about to send you on a mission or something? Oh, Yhwh no. No. This isn't a mission, Jasper, it's a reward. A second life with your memories, some gifts and the opportunity to be free of fate - to make your own way, for better or for worse."
"For just doing what I did?" I asked, stumped on how this whole process worked.
"Of course. Every balancing factor gets something like this," Orion explained, "The good ones get a second chance, the bad ones are forced to repent before getting sent to the recycling bin - aka they're thrown into the reincarnation river. Usually ends up with them living at the bottom of the food chain as a worm," he mused before reappearing at my side again, "Now, do you want to get to spinning the wheel? I'd hate to take away any of the time you could be spending in a new life."
...I've got no clue how the minds of Gods work. They just reward people? Good people, sure, but this is a hell of a lot different compared to the stuff taught to me in church.
It did get me thinking, however. A second life. Most definitely in a different world because putting people back on Earth with their memories and a bunch of divine gifts would just cause a whole bucket of craziness to occur. But a second life nonetheless.
"Sure," I answered tentatively before gesturing to the wheel, "How does this work then? How many spins to I get? Does it decide where I'm going as well?"
Orion held up seven fingers that warped the light around them, "You get seven spins. One decides where you go, the other six are gifts or blessings or whatever you want to call them."
Taking a deep breath to calm myself, I thought about how surprisingly well I was taking all of this before pushing that to the back of my mind and nodding at Orion, "Spin the wheel then, O' Mighty God."
He chuckled before the wheel span rapidly for a few seconds and gradually slowed down until it landed on what it did. The slice of the board it landed on expanded and the writing on it glowed in a golden hue.
[DC - Animated/Young Justice Universe]
"...Could be worse. Shitty but nowhere near as bad as something like Warhammer," I croaked, my throat suddenly feeling much more dry than it already did. I turned to Orion, "You think you could spin six wheels at the same time? The suspense would probably kill me a second time otherwise," I asked and Orion nodded in response, five more wheels appearing next to the one already there. Just as I went to tell him to spin again, I looked back at him and uneasily asked, "Spinning them all together isn't gonna give me lower odds of getting something good, right? I kinda need good stuff if I wanna survive in DC, animated or not."
"Don't worry, Jasper. Like I said, this is a reward - you won't get punished just because you want it to go by faster," Orion reassured me and waved his hand, spinning all the wheels at once.
I won't lie, my heart was in my throat. DC was a wondrous place - kinda - but it was only like that to those who are strong or skilled enough to enjoy it. Being a random citizen of Gotham would suck ass. And when the Man of Steel is fighting city-busting level threats in Metropolis, I bet it doesn't feel that great to be a street-level superhuman either.
Realistically, I needed powers that would give me some semblance of safety. I've got no desire to go running around in spandex fighting insane supervillains but if I get put in a shitty situation, I want to be able to survive it. Reward or not, DC doesn't feel like much of a reward.
Sure, there are some absolute drop-dead gorgeous women there and I've got some people there I wouldn't mind having a beer with but if you'd given me the choice, it was one of the last places I'd have sent myself. If I had a choice, I'd have had myself reincarnated into some sort of slice-of-live anime which are largely just normal Earth with some twists.
Thinking about it, what kind of reward is this? I don't even get to pick my own reward. Fucking Gods and their mysterious, borderline (read 'most definitely') neglectful ways.
The wheels came to a stop and a piece of paper appeared on my lap.
"For convenience's sake," Orion added as he waved the wheels out of existence and I looked down at the paper. Picking it up, I read through it.
[Hybrid Viltrumite Powerset (Thragg Genetics + Royal Bloodline), Luke Cage's Powerset, Daredevil's Powerset & Sensory Training (Without, you know, being blind), Marrow's Mutant Ability (Enhanced), DNA Lock (Absolute) and Adaptive Mental Defense*]
(A/n - Just wanna point out that the goal of this fanfic isn't to have the MC backhanding the entire Justice League on his own. Don't like the powers I've given the MC? Don't read the book, man.)
Orion chose the perfect time to speak, clarifying a question before I even had a chance to think it up, "Enhanced basically means an ability but on steroids. Absolute means...well, in your case, even I'd have trouble making a clone out of you or even depowering you once I set you free," he held up his hands at my glance, "Not that I was planning to. Just giving an example."
Tentatively taking Orion's word for it, I turned my gaze back to the piece of paper. As far as I know, Viltrumites are basically Walmart Kryptonians. They come with the basic package - exceptionally strong, fast, durable and they can fly. What they don't come with, however, are versatile powers like funky laser eyes or being able to freeze things with their breath. They're, overall, a less powerful version of people like Superman, General Zod and the like. Still, they pack a mean as fuck punch.
Good thing the Young Justice versions of characters aren't as absurdly broken as the comic versions. Still strong but not 'Superman pulling Earth' or 'Superman holding a blackhole in his hand' strong.
Luke Cage was basically just a Viltrumite but on a much lesser scale and without the ability to fly. So kind of a redundant powerset but even then the increased durability, strength, stamina and the healing factor should help even if only a little bit.
Daredevil was...a surprising one. He's most known for his superhuman senses and fighting skills but something that's not talked about enough is his impeccable body control which is a secondary result of his nervous system being so enhanced. The guy can basically make himself use every percentage of muscular power available to him. Put together with the Viltrumite's strength and durability...nice.
Marrow's mutant power, but enhanced, was a bit of a let down.
Very tough and strong bones, sure, but I won't be able to use her ability to grow weapons or extra armor because of my skin's durability. At least I can still reinforce my bones, so extra durability I guess. She also has a healing factor and a second heart, so I'm hoping the latter will give a bit of a boost to my stamina, strength or both and the former will make me even more of a cockroach.
The last two powers are just solid. No clones or me, no depowering and - given enough time - no mental intruders looking into my deepest, darkest secrets.
All in all, I'm looking to become a super-durable, super-strong and super-agile guy with reaction times that'll make mach-speed look slow and superhuman senses that let me sense all sorts of wacky stuff. I get to fly too. Pretty decent, really.
"Huh, these are pretty alright, Orion--" I started but was cut off by the warp-outlined deity as he appeared in front of me and waved.
"Have a good time with your rewards, Jasper!"
Within an instant, I was gone and everything was dark. Then everything was bright and smelly and loud and the air hitting my skin was the most annoying sensation I'd ever felt. Training I knew I'd never had kicked in and my senses dialed themselves back to more controllable levels that were still too keen to be my own. Power flooded my limbs and I felt like an immovable object. Like a mountain.
Then something hit my forehead. Like a fly. It dropped down from my brow and passed my eyes in slow motion where I saw it was a crumbled bullet.
It was at that point that I realised I'd been put in a new body. One that was a dead ringer for a younger version of myself back in my original world.
And I was getting mugged. Or at least I was before the mugger fired a gun at me.
...Fucking Gods.
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