1 Chapter 1

Hey everybody, I'm Oldherd.

Welcome to my first fanfic. I have been following a couple of good writers like Hellodarkness, Rain Reid, Saintbarbido and Desert Chocolate. So I decided to give it a go as well.

10 chapters ahead in my Pat.reon for those who want to access more.

Pat.reon.com/Oldherd.

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(General P.O.V)

He took slow breaths. His chest inflating as he held in the oxygen and let it out smoothly. Looking at the reflection in the water, he saw a handsome if thin sharp face, blue eyes and black hair the color of midnight. A trait his dad had told him he'd inherited from his mom. Ash had never seen his mom.

The whistle blew and without wasting a second, the young teen lunged into the water.

All the noise from his fellow swimmers disappeared and it was him versus the water. He took it fast, discarding technique for pure speed. Almost too fast, Ash found himself on the other end of the swimming pool.

"1.6 m/s not bad and not good either. You can do better than that."

Ash heard his swimming instructor say before the man moved on to another swimmer.

"1.6 huh?"

Ash muttered to himself, getting out of the pool. His face had no expression but for the ones who knew him, they would say he was irritated.

Ash grabbed his towel and walked to the lockers. First, his goggles came off followed by his swimming cap. A quick shower and he was back to standing infront of the Locker. He reached for it before a feeling of dread washed over him.

His fingers trembled and a look of puzzlement appeared on his face. The latch of the locker was just a few centimeters away from his hand yet, he couldn't move it forward. Something told him...

"So get this, she was all over me at the party but when I got the bitch to go somewhere private, she starts acting like a prude..."

Ash could hear some seniors coming his way and not wanting the other teens to see him standing around like a dork, he shook his head, grabbed the handle and swung the locker open.

For a split second, nothing happened. Then everything did.

Ash felt something grab onto him. A pitch black hole swirling with starlight pulled him inside the locker faster than he could react. A scream tore itself out of him as the space he found himself in flipped him onto his sides.

He felt the molecules making up his body stretch into different directions before snapping back together suddenly. His hand clutched the knot of his towel as if seeking salvation in something to hold on to. Then a red thread speared through his body and hooked his soul, connecting him with something far away.

Another loud scream of terror tore itself out of his mouth as he was pulled away at fast speeds. He saw nebulas, blue giants (massive suns), cosmic dust and black holes as he plunged towards a certain direction.

His body phased through a gigantic sun, an asteroid belt, a huge planet shaped like a head, a dry wasteland with a purple beacon of light that he almost grabbed onto for salvation before getting whisked away, then a familiar star system appeared in his vision and he knew without a doubt that the invisible string was pulling him towards the earth.

And sure enough, he passed through all the planets orbiting the sun and despite his terror, a small part of his brain marvelled at seeing something no one else had.

Finally the speed at which he was being pulled decreased as he approached the blue planet. Dressed in nothing but a towel, Ash closed his eyes as he couldn't bear to watch his collision with his home planet. Something told him that he wasn't going to phase through like he did everything else.

The screams of fear that had died out returned full force once he broke through the atmosphere and gravity started pulling him down towards a city, that he noticed was New York. The Statue of Liberty was pretty high catching.

Something else managed to grab his attention before he landed inside a skyscraper through the glass windows. There was a logo on one of the buildings. Stark.

Ash was either tripping or somehow without any warning, he had been transmigrated to the M.C.U. His body slammed through a cubicle, overturning tables and appliances before landing on the wall. Darkness claimed him as he heard the shocked screams from the occupants of the office given his unique entrance.

Ash dreamed of a giant with white eyes looking down at him from the sky.

"Destiny is a curse. Yet those blessed with the ability to act are our greatest heroes. Heed this warning lest you lose yourself. Destiny is a curse."

The giant man whispered as Ash suddenly got up, breathing heavily.

He took large mouthfuls of air, stunned that he was still alive. What had just happened was not only impossible but improbable. His locker had swallowed him! Not to mention managed to send him to another world. This shit only happened in bad fanfiction and Isekai anime.

A few people who had been gathered around him shrunk away at his sudden motion. A middle aged bald man dressed in a white shirt with pens on his shirt pocket and a gentle smile reached out and placed a hand on Ash's naked shoulder.

"Are you okay, son?"

The touch broke Ash out of his horrified thoughts as he begun to process everything that had happened up until now. Eyes wide with fear, Ash scooted far back.

"Stay back!"

"Whoa whoa calm down my boy. I mean you no harm."

The man held up his hands in a show of trust.

"No! stay back!"

Ash grabbed for anything close to him and settled on a stapler that he pointed at the man in a threatening fashion. He was far too out of it to realize a stapler was basically harmless.

The middle-aged man looked back at his colleagues and nodded to the crowd of office workers hovering around them. They took a few steps back while one of them moved away to make a call, looking at Ash from time to time.

"I understand you're scared son but we just want to help you."

He turned to an African American woman behind him and signed with his fingers.

"Linda, could you please get the boy something to cover himself up with? I doubt the towel is keeping him warm."

And that's when Ash realized he was wearing nothing but a towel and despite his nervousness, the goosebumps that sprang out from his body were as a result of how chilly the room was.

Ash closed his eyes and took in deep shuddering breaths, just like he'd been taught by his late father. 'Focus on the here and the now, not the future not the past, just here. Feel the brush of air against your face. The feel of clothes against your skin. Close off everything and imagine yourself as all that exists. Unchanging, inviolable.'

He opened his eyes and exhaled. The stapler in his hands was slowly lowered and the man who had introduced himself as...

"What did you say your name was?"

Ash asked, trying to distract himself with the fact that he had just been abducted during swimming practice and promptly dumped in a world that was probably about to face a very stressful decade. Chitauri invasion, Ultron, Thanos, Kang, Galactus...the world was about to get hit with a shitstorm.

"...and that's how I saved the world on a blue unicorn by sprinkling iced sugar on top of the Mole People."

"What?"

Ash asked, realizing his mind had drifted off into thinking about the threats that were going to hit this world, causing him to entirely miss what the man had said. The world weren't ready. He WASN'T even supposed to be here!

Ash shook his head when the man snapped his fingers before his face. A snort escaped one of the women behind them. There were fewer people hovering above him now. Most had gone to rearranging the stuff he had bowled over while others had excused themselves from the commotion.

"I know it's hard to focus right now, Kid. But could you please tell us your name?"

"Ash."

The young boy answered.

"Ashton Phelps. Dad was a big fan of both celebrities."

He stated while looking away. The memories always brought back the pang of pain. It had only been a year since he'd lost him. His mom had never been in the picture and apart from an Aunt who helped him get emancipated at 16, he had no one else to turn to.

All his friends had left him after his self destructive behavior upon losing his dad. Swimming was supposed to be a way to feel closer to him. His dad had been an amazing swimmer and had idolized Michael Phelps. It wasn't weird that upon Ash's birth that was the name he had been saddled with. His full name was Ashton Mackey Phelps. Ashton Phelps in short. Ashton after Ashton Kutcher

A warm blanket was placed on his shoulders, greatly startling him. The woman responsible for the kind gesture, Kinda if he remembered correctly, smiled warmly at him and signed at him.

"She's deaf but can read lips really well. My name is Anthony by the way."

The man who had shown concern for him from the start said.

Ash was now sufficiently calm to realize freaking out was not going to do him any good. And now the problem he faced was how he was going to explain to the authorities about why he had survived crashing through a 40 story building at maximum velocity with no apparent injuries. The less said about him being from another world the better.

Granted he had heard about the mutterings of a red energy covering him before he completely woke up. That must have been a protective membrane to keep him from splattering on the ground like a water melon.

The elevator dinged and a few security guards with 2 cops in tow walked into the room. One of the office workers pointed towards Anthony and Ash. The latter's heart was hammering heavily inside his chest. Each step they took felt like a death sentence to the young boy. Were they going to cut him up and see for themselves what kind of teenager survives a fall from outer space?

Ash felt his fears were not unfounded at all. To be frank he possessed no identification documents so he was essentially not a U.S citizen. Maybe that gave them the right to do what they wanted with him.

"Hey don't worry. They are just here to make sure that you are alright." Anthony placed a comforting palm on Ash's shoulder.

"I won't let them hurt you."

Ash did not want to believe it but the soothing voice of the man before him decreased his fear somewhat.

Ash looked at him and gave a nod.

"Thank..."

A sudden splash of red covered his face. He wiped off the liquid just as the screams begun.

Ash stared numbly at the huge section of the ceiling, a concrete piece with rebar occupying the space Anthony had been at before. A pool of blood soaked the underside of the towel he had strapped to his body, as the blood spread through the floor. Anthony had been crashed under falling rubble.

"Anthony...?"

He called out despite knowing the man was probably dead.

All around him, chaos was ensuing. Aliens wearing armor broke through the glass and started spewing energy beams from futuristic weapons out at everyone in the room. Outside more aliens entered the planet through a portal in the sky. Linda fell right before Ash as she took a beam aimed at him but he couldn't tear his eyes away from the concrete piece that had taken Anthony away.

The Chitauri invasion was well under way.

His grief over his father's death came back in full force, numbing his thoughts as he spiralled into a never ending gut wrenching pain. Then the building rocked again and the floor gave out. Ash felt as if the world was moving in slow motion. He slammed onto something at the back of his head, a flash of pain cut through his mind before he woke up with a sudden jerk of motion.

"Are you okay son?"

Anthony held him up by the shoulders. Ash looked to the side and promptly threw up.