1 1. A Life Cut Short & Unfulfilled Dreams. (RW)

Disclaimer: The story takes place in an Alternate Earth with a slightly different timeline of events. So people may be born early, some may be born a few years later or maybe not at all.

This gives me more freedom to write characters as I want, also the characters in my story are obviously not an accurate portrayal of their characters.

Please remember that this story is a wish fulfillment story set in Urban Hollywood with some Fantasy elements because of the system's shenanigans so please don't take it too seriously.

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"Finally.. I finally did it.." a handsome middle aged man muttered under his breath as he walked on the sidewalk. He was a little teary-eyed, but that was understandable after all the man had taken his first step towards accomplishing a promise to his mother.

A promise that had become his dream, a dream that he had been chasing his whole life.

His name was Devon Shaw – a small-time TV show director and screenwriter, who dreamed of filming his own movie one day and becoming a famous director in Hollywood.

It had been over 3 decades since had made that promise to himself and he was in his 40s now. He was very lucky to still have his mother with him, she was old but he took care of her both emotionally and financially so she got by quite well.

He couldn't wait to break this news to her.

He himself still couldn't believe it actually, after working on so many TV shows, writing scripts and sometimes even books. He remembered pitching so many different ideas to producers and studio heads.

And finally after years of trying, he finally achieved success, his most recent original idea for a movie script had gotten the attention of someone high up on the food chain.

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«The Darkest Knight» his most recent attempt at writing an original superhero movie script had worked out. It was inspired from two of his most favourite superheroes - Batman and Moonknight. It was the story of a boy whose parents a gunned down in a robbery gone wrong.

Stanley Rogers the boy who survives this gruesome encounter is scarred for life. The traumatic experience awakens his latent superpowers but it proves to be too much for his young mind to cope on top of the trauma.

It unfortunately, causes his mind to shatter and he developes a split personality to cope with the pressure and burgeoning powers but he doesn't know about it.

He is the base personality and works as a police detective but what he doesn't know is that he himself was the very superhero he was trying so desperately to catch. It's because after the appearance of his superhero persona the level of high level crime had rapidly risen.

His superhero personality – Eidolon, knows that Stanley exists and that he is the base personality but he knows that he can't let him know of his own existence or else the detective will surrender himself to the police and it will all be over.

Eidolon has a strict no kill rule though and it has garnered him a lot of praise and support from the general public. But there is something even he didn't know, he thinks that there are only two personalities that exist within their minds; him and the detective.

And this was the twist of the story, in the background a third character had been slowly introduced through news reports and social media. He was a masked vigilante who to some was terrorizing the city, while to some was trying to save it.

Robbery, kidnapping, multiple homicides, arson, destruction of private and public property – he has done it all. He never left any name so some took to calling him many names, but one that was used the most and finally stuck suited his M.O. – Monarch.

After every crime of his, he would send in all the information on the people who he had dealt with to the police and multiple online and cable news channels. So that even if they wanted to hide their illegal activities they couldn't.

Monarch was the third personality of Stanley Rogers who knew about the existence of the other two and could even use the skills of the detective and Eidolon's superpowers along as if they were his own. But he was very discreet when using them and no one suspected him of being a meta-human.

But he wasn't just sending the criminals to meet their maker no he knew that crime couldn't really be eradicated for as long as there is light, shadows will be casted. So he decided that he will become the lord of underworld, "The Monarch" and control it all. For he knows that only if the criminals are under his control can they be leashed in, so that the innocents aren't hurt.

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An executive producer at Universal really liked the script and wanted to make a film based on it, but at first he was against using Devon as the director. He knew that Devon had worked as a TV show director for decades but this was going to be a big budget superhero movie.

He didn't feel like Devon could pull off directing such a big budget movie, so he thought to suppress Devon in negotiations and buy out the script to film the movie himself with a better director.

Unfortunately, Devon didn't really have an agent who could negotiate at that level, he hadn't really needed one before. After a few rounds of negotiation, Devon knew that he was fighting a losing battle. So with a heavy heart, he decided to take a step back.

He compromised, it hurt his heart a lot to do it but he did, after all he was an adult, he knew things can't always go his way. He agreed to co-direct it with a director appointed by them, provided that his creative vision won't be stifled.

He also requested to be given a few copies of the director's cut - that is his own cut that he could show to his family and friends, because he knew the movie that's gonna be made in the end will be quite different then the one he envisioned.

So he made this request so he could his version of the movie to his friends and family and maybe he sell the directors cut to Netflix later down the line.

He still remembered seeing the intrigued smile on the producer's face. After the meeting he had called him aside and told him something that made his

"You are a smart man, Mr. Shaw. You know when to retreat and when to stand firm. I believe you could be someone worth investing in, so I added a small clause in the contract as a reward."

"Despite this being your first feature film and you co-directing it. Your name will be at the front and center with due credit and recognition when the marketing for the movie begins."

He just remembered holding back his tears somehow and thanking the man for considering him. That man might have tried to suppress him in the negotiations but that was his job, this was a dog eat dog world out here, after all.

He felt the breeze as he calmly walked on the sidewalk, he wanted to break the news to his family. As small as it was, they were his world, his mother and his lovely wife.

*Ring* x3

*Ring* x3

He was sad his mother didn't pick up the call, so he started calling his wife's number, even though she was in the office he knew she could pick up the phone. He just wanted to share this great news with someone because he couldn't hold it in anymore.

Suddenly a bus swerved off road and drove up on the sidewalk, smashing right into him at over 60 miles an hour. His body, broken and battered, was flung into the air and crashed on the nearby wall. He could barely keep himself conscious for a few seconds.

As he was dying all he could think about was how much emotional distress and misery his family would be in after they found out about his death. Thankfully he had an expensive life insurance and had set up his will as well in case of his untimely death.

What he didn't expect though was waking up from that accident. After all, last he remembered his entire rib cage was shattered and he was bleeding out from everywhere. It was not a pretty look and it was especially not something people got to just walk away from.

But on his walk to a familiar yet unfamiliar washroom, he was slowly assimilating the memories of the last 4 years of his new life. Life that he spent almost on autopilot, though he was grateful for not having to go through potty training and baby years again; and being mindful at same time.

But he knew it was him and not some innocent child whose body he had just hijacked. Why? Well it was because, what child would think to themselves that what age would be appropriate early to start speaking from and be recognised as a genius but still not freak out his parents.

As he was getting the memories of this life unlocked, he realized that a lot would be different this time around, his ethnicity, his intellect, his nationality; his whole life will be different. Well it wasn't bad per say but just different and he didn't know how to feel about it.

He was white or caucasian this time around, he didn't really care much about a person's race or the color of their skin. But thought it would be very interesting to see if white privilege was actually a thing.

He put down a stool to stand on and saw himself in the mirror as he kept remembering things about this new life. It was 1974 and he was born on July 1st, 1970. He was born almost a decade earlier than in his previous life.

He was born in America this time, said to be the land of the free and brave. It was the place where he once dreamt of moving to after successfully making his first movie; to fulfill his dream of one day becoming a film director and making it big in Hollywood.

'But sadly it all had stayed just that, just a fucking dream.' He thought to himself as he saw a lone tear slide down his left eye. He held on to the sink and cried his eyes out at the unfairness of it all –

Leaving behind his family to mourn, failing to achieve his dream, failing to even make the smallest of difference to do something about his mother's dream, he had been a complete failure in his past life.

In the back of his mind he knew he was being unjustly harsh on himself but who could he blame if not himself. He wasn't someone who liked to blame others or his fate on the mishaps in life.

He was a man who took responsibility for the things that happened to him and did his best to overcome them. But this time though there really wasn't much he could have done.

Maybe he should have taken a cab home or maybe he should have paid more attention to his surroundings. But he could swear that he didn't even hear the bus swerving up onto the sidewalk.

Looking into the mirror he imagined his mother standing behind him, hunched over hugging his crying form, rubbing his back as she told him that he would be just fine and to love and care for his new mum just as much as he did for her.

"should have.. could have.. it doesn't matter anymore.. my dreams still live on and so do my mum's and this time around I swear I'll make them come true." he spoke softly as he imagined being hugged by his mum one last time.

"I know you won't be there to see it, but know that I will do it for you, mum. Thanks for putting up with me for so long.. and I am sorry," he choked back a sob and said the rest, "that I left you before you could've left me, but knowing you will be looked after and cared for gives me some peace and comfort."

Finished with letting out his emotions, he splashed some water on his face and wiped away his tears. He began thinking about what he could or would do with his second shot at life.

This time he won't have to waste time fumbling around trying to find out what he was good at and felt like he knew what he truly wanted for himself and that would change later down the line. Maybe he might add some new things to his to-do-list for life.

But he was comforted at the thought of being backed by over 40 years of life experience and so much knowledge about the future. Because he knew, if he gave it his all he could definitely fulfill his dream of making it big in Hollywood.

He had seen the dumpster fire Hollywood had become in the latter years of his life, with Disney just buying everything it could get its hands on and then turning them into something most people won't even watch for free.

It was a travesty he knew he had to stop this time around, no matter the costs. It happened with Star Wars, it happened with the MCU or should he say M-she-U and then even to fucking Pixar.

Celebrated at one time as one of the greatest animation studios in Hollywood that had never once failed to deliver great movies, somehow created movies like Lightyear and Elementals after Disney went crazy.

'Truly Disney at its finest.' he chuckled softly, as he remembered the propaganda and message Disney had tried to spread. They shunned their existing audiences all just to cater to the whims of their corporate overlords and paid the price as it all came crashing down.

He was slowly coming down from his emotional high, coming to terms with his life being cut short and his unfulfilled dreams, as he resentfully accepted his second chance at life.

He knew it would take time but eventually he would love his new family, love his new life, because he wasn't some punk emo teenager who got isekai'd like in those manga.

Rather he was a middle-aged man in 40s who never knew to quit nor did he mope about the hand he had been dealt with. He ruffled up his hair and smiled big like one of his favorite superheroes.

He took a deep breath and slowly let it go, as he spoke out loud while smiling big, "It's okay, I promise it will be different this time, why.. because this time I will not just write stories but my very own future."

Filled with new found hope and resolve, he gazed into the mirror, he observed that while his face was average at best, his eyes were beautiful. They were a vibrant shade of emerald green that just drew in the viewer's gaze.

Giving his facial features a once over he decided that he would establish his own studio in the future. After all, he didn't want to be controlled by someone else or be working for someone else.

His train of thoughts stopped as he realized he was still thinking too small, his maturity was holding him back but maybe being in a child's body filled him with that belief that maybe he could go further and climb higher this time around.

So, he decided he wouldn't just establish his own studio but rather build an Entertainment Empire. He decided if he was going to live life again then he was going to dream big and this time he was going to achieve them, he swore an oath to himself.

He will break the hegemony of the Big 6 studios, and create a film studio that will make even Disney look small in the future, a future where Hollywood was going to become a bigger trash cesspit that it already was..

He was going to change that future, he was going to write a new one, one where he would conquer Hollywood.

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Timeskip 10 years later…

In this world, he was reborn as Mark Spencer, an average-looking, unassuming youth with a genius-level intellect. If you asked him what he would choose between the two, he would choose intellect over looks every single day of the week. So he was quite happy with this new arrangement.

Physique-wise, he was tall for his age, broad shoulders and was very fit, it was due to him training from a very young age with a focus on improving his endurance and stamina. He did this by strictly following a healthy diet and exercise routine of swimming, yoga and long-distance running.

Swimming was one of the best exercises one could do as it was a full body and he loved the "feeling" swimming gave him. Yoga helped to calm down his anxious mind and raised his flexibility, posture and better sleep whereas the running helped in building stamina.

After growing up more, he added body-weight exercises to his routine and then he mixed in boxing and weightlifting as well but only when he felt like his body was ready for it. As he had heard about the consequences of starting weightlifting too early.

His family was very supportive of him as well, whether it being his choice to live a more healthy lifestyle as well as his writing endeavors. He had even told them about his desire to become a director, his mother didn't really agree at first but grumpily accepted it after dad had a talk with her.

His dad, Harvey Spencer was a former Assistant District Attorney for the New York County District Attorney's Office and now he was the senior partner in New York's finest law firm Pearson & Gardner.

His mum, Diane, was a retired professor of linguistics at NYC, now she was happily enjoying a peaceful married life with her small family of three.

Sadly, he found out that even though he had been somehow reborn into the past in a new identity, just like those isekai stories he used to read as a guilty pleasure. He didn't get much in terms of benefits as is the norm with stories of this kind.

He was missing his "golden finger." He tried a lot of different things to awaken his system or power, whatever it was, sadly it ended up being a complete failure. It became one of his more embarrassing memories from childhood that his mom still uses to tease him to this day sometimes.

But he wasn't disheartened because it and to be honest being reborn and getting to live his life once again with all his experiences and knowledge from the previous life was quite the cheat in itself.

His "autopilot" mind that was running off of his own personality had decided it would be best to set expectations early. So to be considered a child prodigy, he started speaking properly at just 2 years of age.

Later on he took a break from education after skipping a few grades in middle school, but he didn't just complete his education in one go by instantly acing highschool because he wanted the free time to do more important things.

Like starting up a business, he wanted to establish a studio when he became a director as he didn't want his creative vision to be controlled by others. And for that he was going to need a lot of money, money that he couldn't ask his parents for.

It wasn't like they were poor but they didn't have millions of dollars just lying around, so he decided that he would earn that money himself. By that time, he had already started writing novels to earn money and steal a few IPs from my previous life.

Mark didn't even realize as he went off on a tangent once again, his thought process was still too active and would constantly go into many directions when he thought about something. Despite all the meditation and yoga he did on the daily, this was a problem that still remained to be solved.

This is why he would get easily distracted like now where he went from thinking about his new business to IPs he stole by writing novels to earn enough to start the business in the first place. The two things were inter-connected but only barely at best.

Intellectual properties or IPs were stories that he knew went on to become cash cows for the big production houses. But he knew he had to be smart about it, he couldn't just make stuff out of thin air for his stories.

His mom would definitely ask him a hundred questions about the story and he definitely didn't want to be caught in a lie. So he needed to have a proper creative process behind his work for it to look legit.

Like how he came up with the idea for the story, what inspired him to write it, etc.

After giving it much thought he decided on writing Ben 10 as a graphic novel. It was a beloved cartoon show that he used to love watching and had re-watched multiple times. He was very well acquainted with the plot and the characters.

But he had chosen Ben 10 as his first book because of his age when he had started writing. He still remembered it was only after his 10th birthday, that he had started working on Ben 10 writing it in a diary as he didn't have a typewriter or personal computer.

He did this so that he would have a believable excuse for why his protagonist was only a 10 year old kid while he was going on life threatening adventures, fighting against giant robots, alien mercenaries and even an evil space warlord with an octopus for head.

To explain his creative inspiration, he watched Star Wars IV(1977) and Aliens (1979) on VHS a year after they came out. He had also watched an intriguing movie called "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"(1978).

Star Wars helped explain the inspiration for different alien species and societies, the movie Aliens helped explain how he thought humanoid alien creatures would fight and behave and the body snatchers for the DNA alien arc in the second volume Ben 10.

Writing Ben 10 as a graphic novel proved to be quite the challenge for him. It was because he had to adapt a cartoon into written words and yet not lose his audience's (readers) interest.

Thankfully his two decades of writing experience came in clutch as he wrote Ben 10. He tried his best to do the show justice, as it had been one of his favorite shows that he used to watch with his godson.

He took extra care to write it in a manner that would seem like the work of a kid no matter how genius, though thankfully with Ben 10 being a kids cartoon show.. he didn't have to try that hard.

He wrote it in the form of a graphic novel with character illustrations and artworks rather than just a simple novel as people in the 80s might find it difficult to imagine the aliens and different spaceships and gadgets.

Drawing and sketching came easy to him in this life as well as it had been one of his favorite hobbies from past life. He remembered the time he first approached his dad with his finished book.

His dad already knew that he was working on something, how could he not after his little genius had vehemently requested for him to buy him a typewriter as a gift for his upcoming birthday.

Harvey had been told by Diane that Mark had been working on some kind of story but he had no clue what it was exactly that his kid had been writing for the past year. To say he was in for a surprise would be an understatement.

~ Harvey Spencer's POV (Mark's dad) ~

He had been in his study reading up on some case files when Mark came to him wanting to show this book, which he has been diligently working on for the last few months.

He didn't think much of it at first, because even though his son is a genius and academically brilliant, the kind of creative talent and command over language that was required to write a novel is still beyond his preteen years and he would need more time and practice.

But he was happy for his son because he had found his passion early on and started working on it, as he believed everything can be achieved if only one was willing to work hard enough for it.

Before he even opened the book, he told him of how he was proud of his son for writing a story to the end at such a young age. To write something isn't a big thing, many people write stories but the ones who complete them are far and few between.

Though it was only after he read the first two chapters, that he realized just how much he had been underestimating his son. It was at that time he thought his son might actually have a gift, a gift of storytelling.

As the story was so good that if he hadn't seen him hunched over his desk writing till late at night. He wouldn't believe that his yet to be 11-year-old son wrote this incredible and thrilling adventure novel all by himself.

If this was his first work at just 11 years old then he couldn't even imagine what kind of stories he will create when he grows and gets even better.

'Will his name be taken in the same breath as some of the great authors and novelists of our time?'

He shook his head to clear away that thought, he didn't know the answer to it but he felt it would be wrong to lay the burden of such great expectations on him.

All he could do was fulfill his duty as his father to help him grow and provide him with all the necessary tools to fulfill his goals.

'This book here is already good enough that after being edited and proofread once or twice it can be sent for publishing.'

'But first I must discuss this further with Mark on how he wants to proceed with his journey to become an accomplished author.'

"This is some great work, son. I am really proud, so tell me, do you want to be an author when you grow up?" He asked, trying to gauge his son's reaction.

"I am not sure dad, I do love writing novels and I have many more ideas for novels as well. But I want to do something else." Mark replied with some hesitation in his voice.

"Come on now, out with it. You have created such a fascinating story at such a young age. I don't think there is anything in this world you can't achieve if you put your mind to it." He encouraged Mark to speak his mind.

Taking a few deep breaths to calm his rapidly beating heart. Mark replied with the most serious and determined face he could pull off. "Dad, I want to be a film director. I want to make it big in Hollywood. I want to be remembered, I want to tell stories on the big screen of things no one has ever even dreamt about".

"Hmm you have really seemed to have put a lot of thought into this. But I still feel the need to ask why make movies, can't you tell your stories perfectly well from books as well." Harvey inquired, wanting to know what drove his son to go for movies.

"Well dad it's simply about the impact and reach. Movies are more impactful and with the upcoming innovation in the field of computers and developing technology."

"I feel like movies are just going to get bigger and better, and when it does. I want to be at the helm of it." replied Mark with conviction and determination out of place on the face of an eleven year old.

'Hmm he really wants to pursue this path. Well it won't be a smooth and easy road, but I will try my best to get him there.' thought Harvey as he wanted to be supportive of his son's dreams.

{Author's Note: Sorry for the abrupt end of this chapter. But its already been over 4.5k words at this point and felt like the chapter was getting a bit too long.

The first two chapters of this book have been written with a summary kind of feel as I didn't want to go into his childhood in detail and detract from the actual theme of the novel that is Hollywood.

Also I am a first time amateur author and English is my third language. So please if you find any mistakes or have some suggestions please write them down in the comment section.

Please share your feedback in your review. Thank you for taking your time to read my work. I hope you'll have a beautiful day.}