An Unwelcome Displacement
As promised I am porting over stuff.
And I'm starting with this because I just updated it today so why not.
Usual disclaimer: I don't own anything in this story except the characters and stuff that I've created myself. The other stuff belongs to Marvel.
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23:34 EST
11/10/2020
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
It's night like any other. I just finished brushing my teeth and lay on the couch bed in my cozy little apartment in the Scarborough region. Despite having work early tomorrow morning, I still choose to grab my phone and open up the issue of New X-Men that I was reading before my shift. In that issue, M-Day happens and causes about 90% of the remaining mutant population to be depowered, leaving only a couple hundred still with their powers. As I read, a strange sense of exhaustion begins to sweep over me. I think nothing of it, putting it off to a long shift at work. Setting my alarm for tomorrow, I shut off my phone, turn off the lamp, take off my glasses and slowly drift off to sleep. Only I wish that I actually fall asleep, because the next thing I know, a piercing white light is shining down at me.
"Wuhh...Wuhhz goin' on?" The light continues to shine brighter, forcing me to open my eyes in a most terrible fashion. I look around at my surroundings, a far cry from my studio apartment.
"What. The. Fuck." I sit up, only to find that I am no longer in my couch bed either. All I can see is a massive, endless field of white all around me. I look down to see that I am lying on some sort of smooth black stone, stretching for about 100 metres every side. A black cube floating in the middle of nowhere. When I try to lie down and close my eyes, I see a figure materialize in front of me. It is a muscular man with curly black hair and a full beard, dressed in one of those Greek robes and a pair of sandals. He is holding a flaming chunk of what seems to be coal in his right hand and some sort of tablet in his left. He looks at me with amusement, like how a man looks at a dog. I tense up at his approach and ball both my hands into fists.
"There is nothing to fear from me, mortal. I do not come to bring you any harm."
"Then why am I here and not in my apartment!" I look down at myself and find that I am no longer wearing the white t-shirt and red shorts that made up my pajamas. In their place, I am wearing a pair of black military fatigue pants, black combat boots, white t-shirt, black leather jacket and a black leather fedora. The strange man waves his hand and a mirror appears in front of me. Topping off my strange outfit is a black military style webbing belt, a leather sheath for some sort of pocket tool, a black bandana with some sort of strange symbols in red, and a pair of military style gloves with open fingertips and a large open square on the back of my hand. Tactical gear, probably military grade.
A pair of dark sunglasses with a scarlet frame rest on my left. Without thinking, I take them and put them on. The bright lights are immediately dimmed but I can still see everything extremely clearly. That's when the realization hits me, harder than a freight train. I am not wearing my glasses and I can see. I rip off my sunglasses, staring at the empty white space in amazement, until the light begins to hurt and I put the dark shades back on. The man in front of me chuckles, watching my amazement with undisguised amusement. My momentary daze stretches into seconds, until I notice that something is off about my face. It's shape seems odd to me, as if it had been surgically altered. Taking off my sunglasses once more, I glimpse the mirror hoping that nothing is off. What I saw though, was the biggest shock of my life. While I could not say that I was unattractive, my new face makes my old face seem like a complete piece of trash. Everything is perfect, from my nose to my eyes to my hairline. I continue to stare at my new face when I suddenly realize that it bears somewhat of a resemblance to a photo of a young Keanu Reeves that I had seen many years ago. The rest of my body was not far off in terms of improvements. I was healthy but not really muscular beforehand, whereas my new body was seriously built. Muscular triceps, biceps, and a helluva six pack. A part of me is bewildered at the unreal makeover that I have just received while the other half is already suspicious about the motives of the "man" that stands before me. Healthcare doesn't come free, not even in Canada.
"Who are you and what do you want with me? I know these magical makeovers don't come for free - in fact, what the damn price I'm gonna pay for this?" I stand up, peering into his celestial eyes. They are luminous orbs of celestial power, shining with cosmic energy. From all that I know about magic, cosmic powers, and superheroes, lowing eyes can only mean two possibilities, god, demon, or top tier superhuman. Let's hope this isn't an evil Greek god from the DC universe, because that would be real bad.
"I am Prometheus, son of Gaea and Uranus, mortal mutant. As I said before, I have no intent to harm you." He pauses as if he was admiring his handiwork, my new and heavily improved form. "You, child, have been chosen for an important task. One that will change the fabric of reality itself, across a million realities and a thousand-"
"NO, NO, NO! I don't want to hear the rest! Every time you immortal deities pick someone, they always go through the worst shit imaginable, get dealt the shittiest deck of cards, and their sole reward is either a moment of peace and quiet before they squashed to pieces by an errant hammer or a cursed immortality of unending pain and suffering. SO NO, I DON'T WANT TO PARTAKE IN YOUR LITTLE BATTLE ROYALE QUEST!" I stop to catch my breath. "And why the hell did you just call me a mutant? I'm a human!" Prometheus takes my angry triade better than expect, considering that he just stands there and waits for me to finish. And I haven't been set on fire or shattered into a billion pieces.
"You must understand that I have no part in the decision to choose you as the Bearer of the Flame. I am merely the messenger. As for your mortal form, I thought it wise to make your body that of a mutant. A pyrokinetic mutant body is much more receptive to the Flame and it grants you an extra measure of durability, allowing you to stay in your elemental form longer than a baseline human. It also allows you to change the powers of the flame more easily than baseline human form."
"Flame? As in the same flame that you stole from the Greek gods and gave to the first humans?"
"One and the same. But I must warn you, it has evolved over the millennia since I first gave it to the first humans. And it's been tainted...corrupted, in a sense."
"Corrupted? You mean someone unsavory got their hands on the Flame?"
"No." Prometheus sighs deeply and frowns. I can see that the conversation has hit a very uncomfortable topic for him. "The corruption of the flame is my fault and mine alone. You are aware how Zeus punished me for stealing the Flame right?"
"Yes. Chained to a rock with a liver eating eagle. What does this have to do with the Flame? Didn't Zeus take it back after it got passed around the world?"
"He did. And then he proceeded to use it to make a campfire in front of me, as a sort of reminder." Prometheus scratches his coal-black beard. "Back then, I didn't consider that to be a reminder, more of an insult. Rubbing salt in a seemingly eternal wound. After all, I am a son of Gaea herself while Zeus is only a grandson ... and my nephew." He takes a deep breath while I try to process everything that is happening to me. I'm a mutant now. A goddamn mutant of all damn things! Damn my luck!
"You gods and goddesses really do enjoy the sadism don't you? Watching us mortals suffer from your high castle in the heavens, pulling our strings every now and then. Or worse, turning us into the unwitting pawns of your endless little power games, only to dispose of us like trash once you're finished!" Prometheus sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose.
"As I've said, I am only the messenger here. The decision to pick you was made quite a while ago by higher powers." I let out a snort of disgust. Prometheus flashes me a sympathetic look. "Now, can I please continue? You don't have all the time in world. Any delay in the schedule can potentially change the entire timeline - more often for the worse than not." A shiver runs down my spine, images of mutant concentration camps and hordes of Sentinels racing through my mind.
"Guess I've got no choice then. Hell or high water it is." A depressing sigh escapes my mouth. "Please continue the speech Mr. Prometheus. The faster we're done this, the faster I can get on with dying." Prometheus stares sadly at me; just another one of the many mortals that he's sent to their miserable fate over the past couple eons.
"Now as I was saying, the Flame is from my half brother Atum-Ra. In fact, it's literally a piece of him; a piece of the celestial object you mortals like to call the Sun." Prometheus reaches into the folds of his robes and produces a small leather drawstring bag. I watch in silence as he loosens the drawstrings and takes out a small lump of what appears to be coal. It's only when I look closer do I see the veins of cosmic fire that intersect the surface, streaks of reddish-orange lighting up an otherwise colorless piece of black rock.
"A lump of burning coal? Is this some sort of joke?" Prometheus smiles and places the coal on his left palm. A second later it bursts into flames, which shoot upwards into the air and form a massive pillar of fire that extends from Prometheus's palm. My jaw drops open and I can do nothing but stare in shock and disbelief at the display of power from an object so small and seemingly insignificant.
"This flame is literally a piece of my half brother Atum-Ra, one of the only gods with enough power to kill a horde of Celestials without breaking a sweat. And you can imagine how angry and hateful I was when Zeus shoved the Flame right under my nose, just out of my reach. Over the centuries, the Flame absorbed much of my hatred and rage, which resulted in a couple permanent changes to the artifact. The first and foremost is the limitation of how long you can stay in your elemental form before it starts to melt your mortal form." The last part causes me to swallow nervously. No magical artifact ever comes risk free and the elemental form of this little lump of coal just happens to come with a built in death timer. Just my luck.
"Alright, you've hit me with the stick. Now onto the carrot. Is this elemental form what I think it is?"
"Why don't you experience it for yourself. I have to bond the Flame with you anyway, so I might as well do it now. Now just relax mortal." Prometheus snaps his fingers and I am suddenly levitated into the air by an invisible force. My powerful muscles turn limp and lanky; no longer under my control. Despite this, I can still feel everything. Every nerve under my skin tightens with fear; fear of the unknown, of what is about to happen to me. The only part of my body I can move is my eyeballs, and I glare at Prometheus. I am simmering with anger, anger from being bound by magical forces against my will. So much for the "I do not come to bring you any harm" promise that he made less than 5 minutes ago. Prometheus seems to read my mind and he smiles in response.
"Don't worry, this is only going to hurt a little bit. And it'll be all over in less than a minute." The Titan of forethought waves his right hand over the magical lump of coal sitting on his left palm and lights it on fire. Taking the coal, he walks towards me and whispers something in a dialect I cannot understand before shoving the little lump of coal straight into my sternum. The magical artifact slides right into my body without any resistance, like it's no longer a solid object. I start screaming when the Flame enters me, the magical fire pushing my body to the absolute limit. It feels like I've been set on fire, except I can't see any flames. The pain is unimaginable but I can't do anything except keep screaming, my body still being held in levitation by Prometheus's magic. Every nerve in my body writhes in agony, the most intense pain I have ever known. My throat dries up as I keep screaming, the pain overwhelming my senses; a tsunami of pure agony. I can feel a fire ignite deep within me, expanding as it flows throughout my body. The heat streams into my head, legs, and arms until I can take no more. I feel my body shutting down as I lose all sense of touch in my torso, legs, and arms. The last thing I see before I black out from the pain is the empty brightness of the blank dimension.
And I'm starting with this because I just updated it today so why not.
Usual disclaimer: I don't own anything in this story except the characters and stuff that I've created myself. The other stuff belongs to Marvel.
*********************************************************************************
23:34 EST
11/10/2020
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
It's night like any other. I just finished brushing my teeth and lay on the couch bed in my cozy little apartment in the Scarborough region. Despite having work early tomorrow morning, I still choose to grab my phone and open up the issue of New X-Men that I was reading before my shift. In that issue, M-Day happens and causes about 90% of the remaining mutant population to be depowered, leaving only a couple hundred still with their powers. As I read, a strange sense of exhaustion begins to sweep over me. I think nothing of it, putting it off to a long shift at work. Setting my alarm for tomorrow, I shut off my phone, turn off the lamp, take off my glasses and slowly drift off to sleep. Only I wish that I actually fall asleep, because the next thing I know, a piercing white light is shining down at me.
"Wuhh...Wuhhz goin' on?" The light continues to shine brighter, forcing me to open my eyes in a most terrible fashion. I look around at my surroundings, a far cry from my studio apartment.
"What. The. Fuck." I sit up, only to find that I am no longer in my couch bed either. All I can see is a massive, endless field of white all around me. I look down to see that I am lying on some sort of smooth black stone, stretching for about 100 metres every side. A black cube floating in the middle of nowhere. When I try to lie down and close my eyes, I see a figure materialize in front of me. It is a muscular man with curly black hair and a full beard, dressed in one of those Greek robes and a pair of sandals. He is holding a flaming chunk of what seems to be coal in his right hand and some sort of tablet in his left. He looks at me with amusement, like how a man looks at a dog. I tense up at his approach and ball both my hands into fists.
"There is nothing to fear from me, mortal. I do not come to bring you any harm."
"Then why am I here and not in my apartment!" I look down at myself and find that I am no longer wearing the white t-shirt and red shorts that made up my pajamas. In their place, I am wearing a pair of black military fatigue pants, black combat boots, white t-shirt, black leather jacket and a black leather fedora. The strange man waves his hand and a mirror appears in front of me. Topping off my strange outfit is a black military style webbing belt, a leather sheath for some sort of pocket tool, a black bandana with some sort of strange symbols in red, and a pair of military style gloves with open fingertips and a large open square on the back of my hand. Tactical gear, probably military grade.
A pair of dark sunglasses with a scarlet frame rest on my left. Without thinking, I take them and put them on. The bright lights are immediately dimmed but I can still see everything extremely clearly. That's when the realization hits me, harder than a freight train. I am not wearing my glasses and I can see. I rip off my sunglasses, staring at the empty white space in amazement, until the light begins to hurt and I put the dark shades back on. The man in front of me chuckles, watching my amazement with undisguised amusement. My momentary daze stretches into seconds, until I notice that something is off about my face. It's shape seems odd to me, as if it had been surgically altered. Taking off my sunglasses once more, I glimpse the mirror hoping that nothing is off. What I saw though, was the biggest shock of my life. While I could not say that I was unattractive, my new face makes my old face seem like a complete piece of trash. Everything is perfect, from my nose to my eyes to my hairline. I continue to stare at my new face when I suddenly realize that it bears somewhat of a resemblance to a photo of a young Keanu Reeves that I had seen many years ago. The rest of my body was not far off in terms of improvements. I was healthy but not really muscular beforehand, whereas my new body was seriously built. Muscular triceps, biceps, and a helluva six pack. A part of me is bewildered at the unreal makeover that I have just received while the other half is already suspicious about the motives of the "man" that stands before me. Healthcare doesn't come free, not even in Canada.
"Who are you and what do you want with me? I know these magical makeovers don't come for free - in fact, what the damn price I'm gonna pay for this?" I stand up, peering into his celestial eyes. They are luminous orbs of celestial power, shining with cosmic energy. From all that I know about magic, cosmic powers, and superheroes, lowing eyes can only mean two possibilities, god, demon, or top tier superhuman. Let's hope this isn't an evil Greek god from the DC universe, because that would be real bad.
"I am Prometheus, son of Gaea and Uranus, mortal mutant. As I said before, I have no intent to harm you." He pauses as if he was admiring his handiwork, my new and heavily improved form. "You, child, have been chosen for an important task. One that will change the fabric of reality itself, across a million realities and a thousand-"
"NO, NO, NO! I don't want to hear the rest! Every time you immortal deities pick someone, they always go through the worst shit imaginable, get dealt the shittiest deck of cards, and their sole reward is either a moment of peace and quiet before they squashed to pieces by an errant hammer or a cursed immortality of unending pain and suffering. SO NO, I DON'T WANT TO PARTAKE IN YOUR LITTLE BATTLE ROYALE QUEST!" I stop to catch my breath. "And why the hell did you just call me a mutant? I'm a human!" Prometheus takes my angry triade better than expect, considering that he just stands there and waits for me to finish. And I haven't been set on fire or shattered into a billion pieces.
"You must understand that I have no part in the decision to choose you as the Bearer of the Flame. I am merely the messenger. As for your mortal form, I thought it wise to make your body that of a mutant. A pyrokinetic mutant body is much more receptive to the Flame and it grants you an extra measure of durability, allowing you to stay in your elemental form longer than a baseline human. It also allows you to change the powers of the flame more easily than baseline human form."
"Flame? As in the same flame that you stole from the Greek gods and gave to the first humans?"
"One and the same. But I must warn you, it has evolved over the millennia since I first gave it to the first humans. And it's been tainted...corrupted, in a sense."
"Corrupted? You mean someone unsavory got their hands on the Flame?"
"No." Prometheus sighs deeply and frowns. I can see that the conversation has hit a very uncomfortable topic for him. "The corruption of the flame is my fault and mine alone. You are aware how Zeus punished me for stealing the Flame right?"
"Yes. Chained to a rock with a liver eating eagle. What does this have to do with the Flame? Didn't Zeus take it back after it got passed around the world?"
"He did. And then he proceeded to use it to make a campfire in front of me, as a sort of reminder." Prometheus scratches his coal-black beard. "Back then, I didn't consider that to be a reminder, more of an insult. Rubbing salt in a seemingly eternal wound. After all, I am a son of Gaea herself while Zeus is only a grandson ... and my nephew." He takes a deep breath while I try to process everything that is happening to me. I'm a mutant now. A goddamn mutant of all damn things! Damn my luck!
"You gods and goddesses really do enjoy the sadism don't you? Watching us mortals suffer from your high castle in the heavens, pulling our strings every now and then. Or worse, turning us into the unwitting pawns of your endless little power games, only to dispose of us like trash once you're finished!" Prometheus sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose.
"As I've said, I am only the messenger here. The decision to pick you was made quite a while ago by higher powers." I let out a snort of disgust. Prometheus flashes me a sympathetic look. "Now, can I please continue? You don't have all the time in world. Any delay in the schedule can potentially change the entire timeline - more often for the worse than not." A shiver runs down my spine, images of mutant concentration camps and hordes of Sentinels racing through my mind.
"Guess I've got no choice then. Hell or high water it is." A depressing sigh escapes my mouth. "Please continue the speech Mr. Prometheus. The faster we're done this, the faster I can get on with dying." Prometheus stares sadly at me; just another one of the many mortals that he's sent to their miserable fate over the past couple eons.
"Now as I was saying, the Flame is from my half brother Atum-Ra. In fact, it's literally a piece of him; a piece of the celestial object you mortals like to call the Sun." Prometheus reaches into the folds of his robes and produces a small leather drawstring bag. I watch in silence as he loosens the drawstrings and takes out a small lump of what appears to be coal. It's only when I look closer do I see the veins of cosmic fire that intersect the surface, streaks of reddish-orange lighting up an otherwise colorless piece of black rock.
"A lump of burning coal? Is this some sort of joke?" Prometheus smiles and places the coal on his left palm. A second later it bursts into flames, which shoot upwards into the air and form a massive pillar of fire that extends from Prometheus's palm. My jaw drops open and I can do nothing but stare in shock and disbelief at the display of power from an object so small and seemingly insignificant.
"This flame is literally a piece of my half brother Atum-Ra, one of the only gods with enough power to kill a horde of Celestials without breaking a sweat. And you can imagine how angry and hateful I was when Zeus shoved the Flame right under my nose, just out of my reach. Over the centuries, the Flame absorbed much of my hatred and rage, which resulted in a couple permanent changes to the artifact. The first and foremost is the limitation of how long you can stay in your elemental form before it starts to melt your mortal form." The last part causes me to swallow nervously. No magical artifact ever comes risk free and the elemental form of this little lump of coal just happens to come with a built in death timer. Just my luck.
"Alright, you've hit me with the stick. Now onto the carrot. Is this elemental form what I think it is?"
"Why don't you experience it for yourself. I have to bond the Flame with you anyway, so I might as well do it now. Now just relax mortal." Prometheus snaps his fingers and I am suddenly levitated into the air by an invisible force. My powerful muscles turn limp and lanky; no longer under my control. Despite this, I can still feel everything. Every nerve under my skin tightens with fear; fear of the unknown, of what is about to happen to me. The only part of my body I can move is my eyeballs, and I glare at Prometheus. I am simmering with anger, anger from being bound by magical forces against my will. So much for the "I do not come to bring you any harm" promise that he made less than 5 minutes ago. Prometheus seems to read my mind and he smiles in response.
"Don't worry, this is only going to hurt a little bit. And it'll be all over in less than a minute." The Titan of forethought waves his right hand over the magical lump of coal sitting on his left palm and lights it on fire. Taking the coal, he walks towards me and whispers something in a dialect I cannot understand before shoving the little lump of coal straight into my sternum. The magical artifact slides right into my body without any resistance, like it's no longer a solid object. I start screaming when the Flame enters me, the magical fire pushing my body to the absolute limit. It feels like I've been set on fire, except I can't see any flames. The pain is unimaginable but I can't do anything except keep screaming, my body still being held in levitation by Prometheus's magic. Every nerve in my body writhes in agony, the most intense pain I have ever known. My throat dries up as I keep screaming, the pain overwhelming my senses; a tsunami of pure agony. I can feel a fire ignite deep within me, expanding as it flows throughout my body. The heat streams into my head, legs, and arms until I can take no more. I feel my body shutting down as I lose all sense of touch in my torso, legs, and arms. The last thing I see before I black out from the pain is the empty brightness of the blank dimension.
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