Marvel Draft #1 Alexander Lancaster

One of the patrons, Daniel Persholm, suggested I write several drafts for my new story and go with the one I liked the most or let you guys decide with a vote if I still couldn't make a choice, and I liked the idea, so here's the first draft! Make sure to tell me what you guys think!

.....

Death.

Such a fascinating, frightening concept, Don't you think? The inevitable unknown. Destined and indiscriminate, and no matter how dearly we cling to our lives, it will come for us one day.

And yet humans couldn't help but wonder, what was death? The end of our journey? Or perhaps merely the start of a new one?

'Not me. Not anymore.'

But I won't deny the truth.

Like many others, I've spent many idle hours of my life thinking about such vague concepts whenever I find myself turning in my bed, unable to sleep.

But for all of my wonderings, the many conceptions I had about death, the truth was disappointingly irking. Darkness and silence as far as the eye could see.

'Do I even have eyes in the first place?' I let out an internal sigh, the image of my death still vivid in my mind.

My name is... was Alexander Lancaster.

Besides some deep thoughts here and there while turning in my bed or taking and lengthy shit or shower, I was an agent of averageness through and through.

I graduated, got a job, and worked my ass off as a corporate sl*ve, slowly turning into a mindless drone living from paycheck to paycheck as the years went by.

My death, however, stood out from my boring life. But I somehow find little consolation in that fact, considering the circumstances.

I died to champagne cork at my boss's retirement party, believe it or not. The damned thing bounced off the ceiling fan and hit square between my eyes, and that's about all I could remember about the affair.

I wasn't overly attached to my life, but it didn't seem so bad after all compared to spending what is most likely an eternity in this godforsaken encompassing void, or so I'd thought.

'What is that...?'

My musings were interrupted by an intense shining silver light heading towards me.

'Whatever it is, it's probably better than staying here in this darkness for eternity...'

I concluded as I tried to push myself towards the light. I couldn't move despite trying my best, but it didn't matter since I didn't need to.

The silver light soon engulfed me in its blinding sheen, and there was no more darkness...

...

"What the...?" I muttered as I opened my eyes, feeling disoriented. However, I didn't have much time to think as I heard a cracking noise, an intense pain snapping me out of my daze.

My hand unconsciously reached for my nose, and my eyes widened as I looked down to see it covered in blood. I raised my head, trying to make sense of the situation.

The first thing I saw was a fist heading straight for my jaw. I froze, or that's how I would have typically reacted to such a situation, but I moved on pure instinct alone, moving my head to the side.

"Now, wait a minute!" I exclaimed, trying to reason with whoever was trying to smash my face in, but the guy, a homeless-looking man, didn't listen.

"Shut up, you freak! Leave me alone!" He replied with a scoff, rocking his fist back and preparing to punch at me again.

I felt my eyes twitch at the unreasonable reply, but my body moved on instinct to dodge the attack, regardless. I sidestepped, letting the punch pass by my side, missing my shoulder by a hair's breadth.

"Will you calm down for a second?!" I exclaimed, my patience growing thin. I had droves of patience, courtesy of the tolerance necessary to all working men to survive corporate sl*very, but even that wouldn't hold in the face of the situation I found myself in.

Driven by my confusion and the sharp pain from my nose, I allowed my instinct to take hold of me. I reached for the homeless man's extended hand, gripping his forearm and pulling.

The homeless man staggered toward me. His eyes widened as he looked up at me, only to be greeted by the waiting elbow of my other hand.

I hit him in the nose, likely breaking it based on the sickening crunch I heard and the jets of blood as the homeless man fell on his ass, clutching it and grunting in pain.

"Are you prepared to listen now, or do you want to keep going?" I asked, sending the homeless man a glare as I stood over him, getting a hurried nod.

"Where are we? What city is this?" I asked, looking around and noticing I was in a dark alley with two busy streets at the two ends of it that would have likely smelled like piss if my nose wasn't full of blood.

The homeless man shot me a confused look at my question as he slowly got up, still clutching his nose.

"This is New York City," the homeless man replied, speaking in a nasal voice as he shot me a glare.

'New York? I could work with that, but I need more information.'

"Why did you attack me, and why are you calling me a freak?" I asked, after a second's pause, shooting the homeless man a bemused look as he tried to inch away and runoff.

"It's 'cause you're a freak. How else could you appear out of nowhere like that?!" the homeless man replied, a disgusted look on his face as he looked me up and down.

"You're one of them, mutant freaks, aren't you? Just you wait until the friends of humanity hear about you!" he added, shooting me a hateful glare only to start panicking as I gripped the collars of his dirty, yellowed jacket and pulled him towards me.

"Mutants?! Friends of humanity? You better stop gibbering and start making sense or else!" I exclaimed, threateningly shaking the homeless man instead of punching him again, which was the more appealing choice.

There was something about the look he gave me that grated my nerves.

"Let go of me, mutant freak! You won't get away with this!" the homeless man replied, sounding panicked and hateful as he tried to punch me again.

I grit my teeth and frustration, my patience already at its limits, as I pinned the homeless man against the wall and punched him in the face, knocking him out cold.

I had no idea how I knew that punch was enough to knock the homeless man out, nor where I learned to punch like that. But as I saw him sliding on the wall, falling to the ground, I just knew it instinctively.

My breath hitched, and I unconsciously took a step back. My hands raised to the bridge of my nose, and I felt my breaths rapidly quicken.

'Just what the hell is going on...?' I took a deep breath and leaned on my knees to calm myself, but my confusion and panic only intensified as I noticed some graffiti on the alley's wall.

I froze as I looked at the symbol painted on the wall, a red and blue eagle with three initials inscribed on its wings; FOH. The hateful slurs I finally noticed decorating the entirety of the alley were just the icing on top of the cake.

Hang the mutants!

Mutants are demons!

I didn't know how long I stared at the symbol in my daze, but by the time I snapped out of it, the homeless man was already long gone. And I was just about ready to start panicking when a transparent window suddenly appeared in the corner of my vision.

[Bonding complete]

I slowly blinked, but the window remained in its place even with my eyes closed.

[Scanning systems... all systems appear to be functional]

The window disappeared, and a new one appeared to replace it.

[Scanning base template... scan complete]

Name: Alexander Lancaster

Age: 19

Gender: Male

Race: Human

Class: none

Abilities:

[Acrobatics: the favorite skill of cheerleaders and circus performers; This is the ability to perform tumbles, somersaults and other complex maneuvers. You can use it to dodge attacks, climb obstacles, and similar agile tasks as well.]

[brawling: call it brawling, martial arts, fisticuffs, or flailing your arms wildly, this skill covers the art of using your hands and other assorted body parts to hurt your fellow man (or critter).]

[cold weapons mastery: When a fist is not enough, it's time to break out some old-fashioned sharp metal whatsits and start a-hacking and a-slashing. This skill is used for all archaic weapons, from swords and quarterstaffs to crossbows and throwing axes]

Power:

[Electricity generation: the ability to generate and discharge electricity through conductive media (cannot release through air or concrete) at sufficiently high amounts to kill grown men or short out a building's electrical systems (this power may evolve under the right circumstances)]

Inventory:

[Benchmade Fixed Adamas Knife (2)] [Metalic Wire] [Bulletproof Black trenchant] [Foladable Crossbow]

"Well, there's no denying it anymore..." I muttered, helplessly sighing as I turned to the sky.

"I died and reincarnated into the Marvel universe somehow..."