2 Chapter 2 In The Flesh

Note to self and FYI for others, waking up can be a pain. And I'm not talking about that feeling where you get up in your comfortable or uncomfortable bed with your head spinning because you decided to have a late night drink which spiraled into something rather disastrous, leaving you with a massive hangover to deal with the moment you wake up.

Oh, no Sire.

I mean the type where your whole body feels like it's on fire, alongside the uncomfortable and prickly sensation of your skin being poked by needles.

****

No not poked. Stabbed for good measure. Yeah, that feels about right.

Groaning heavily, a male figure sprawled on the floor before gradually lifting himself into an upright posture.

His aching temples and sour nose brought about measures of pain as he forced his eyes open.

He tried and failed to stand up from his sitting position as his weakened body failed to respond to him.

However, despite his aching figure, and contorted face, he sported a pair of bright purple eyes that held nothing but surprising calm.

The cold air assaulted his exposed body, causing in instinctive chill to run down his spine. The wind that blew past was continuous, making his body shiver.

Thankfully, the pain lessened over time until it eventually disappeared completely a few minutes later.

"Ok, that was... horrible. May I never have to experience that sort of pain again".

He finally stood upright as he adapted to his form. His eyes, which now held beautiful purple irises, ran all over his body.

"Yup, that confirms it. I'm naked, and lying in a hole for that matter. How splendid…." He said sarcastically as he clenched his fists.

The disorientation had disappeared, and he looked at himself to admire what he could only consider to be his new body.

"So I truly gained new form, huh? Nice. Now I can..." He had barely finished his words when something strange happened.

[New body created. Remaining Energy Units: 54623 Units]

His eye glowed a bright purple as he looked at his arm. Strange drawings had appeared on his arm from the wrist to his elbows section, covered with intricate markings akin to tattoos on his unblemished skin.

With a raised eyebrow, he looked at the drawings which had no distinct meaning at all but could strangely understand. To him, it was not strange at all.

"A hundred and sixty thousand, two hundred and eighty-one units of Apex celestial energy from the day of my existence until this moment. And now, what remains is less than half that number... Haa!"

He mumbled in a grumbling tone before letting out an exasperated sigh. His helplessness was rather justified, though.

"Twenty years, a whole twenty years to accumulate that much, and now I have less than half...." He shook his head lightly to allay himself before continuing to examine his new body.

"Nevertheless, it doesn't matter. At least the energy was well spent. In case this body is destroyed, no matter how low the possibility is, I won't have to wait another twenty years to regain form. However, my curiosity about this world needs to be satisfied. I don't even know where I am exactly right now". He said inwardly as he climbed out of the hole.

What greeted his view was the sight of vast lands and the open road ahead of him. He looked down and realized that he was currently standing on asphalt with a straight white line that stretched down the road very far away.

He realized that he had appeared straight on the road, and there was currently a pit almost six meters deep and four meters wide. This could be a serious safety hazard for anyone who is driving down this path.

"Should I do something about it?" He asked himself with a thoughtful look on his face before it grew nonchalant.

"Nah". He thought before looking into the distance and frowning.

Judging from the fact that he couldn't see any nearby cities, he judged that the closest human civilization was probably very far away. Nevertheless, this was exactly as he had intended.

The amount of energy needed to enter into a new universe was rather tremendous. If he had decided to appear directly within a populated area, the damage caused would be noticeable.

He didn't care a bit about the property damage or potential harm to the lives around when it happened, but he would rather not draw unnecessary attention to himself.

After all, this world wasn't the same as the main earth universe where all worlds branched out from but DC.

The DC universe that housed superpowers, alien life forms, dimension - conquering freaks and where extraterrestrial invasions took place on a 'half a decade' basis.

Well, at least one of them, anyway.

As for which universe he was currently in, whether it be the comics, movies, or one of the many series, he didn't know.

Hell, he could even be in an AU made up of a mishmash of different events. These types of universes were typically the hardest to deal with, as knowledge from the main universe had very little effect there.

It could even be the universe created as a result of a nineteen-year-old kid writing fan fiction for fun because he didn't have anything better to do.

At that particular thought, his eyes narrowed once more.

The future of such universes was unknown, and only the general DC knowledge could be completely trusted.

Stuff like Superman would always be Clark Kent and have a weakness to kryptonite, Flash would always have his mother killed by reverse flash unless he triggered flash point.

Wonder Woman was always an Amazonian, and Jonathan Kent always dies.

Yeah, that kind of shit.

He would rather not drop off uninvited within a city, cause massive damage and tick off the big blue Boy Scout.

Then get questioned by the Justice league about his purposes on this Earth.

He wasn't afraid of them, yes, but that was just asking for unnecessary trouble and relatively time-consuming.

He wasn't hard-pressed for time. In fact, he had all the time in the universe, but that didn't mean he'd waste it.

Besides, he didn't want to kill the Justice league or anything similar unless they stood in his way to accomplishing his goals.

Back to the point of focus.

So choosing to appear away from civilization was the logical choice. Nonetheless, the power surge that occurred upon his arrival would definitely not go unnoticed.

Hell, he wouldn't be surprised if someone was on their way to investigate right now.

"Although I didn't specify which universe exactly, but one that wasn't too powerful was in calculations when I expended energy to get here. Still, to reach the nearest city, I'll either have to give myself abilities, or wait for a possible passing vehicle to seek aid".

He said thoughtfully with a hand on his chin.

"Well, superpowers it is, then".

As if it were even a choice anyway. He certainly wasn't waiting until a random passerby happened to come across and help him from the good of their heart.

"But first, let's deal with the body issue". He said as he looked at his new body and his eyes shone purple. A second later, he was fully clothed, in a simple black T-shirt and blue trousers.

[-5 units of energy]

"Comfortable enough". He said without bothering to pay attention to his clothes that appeared out of him air.

"Now let's go sightseeing".

.......

** Army Base, Location: Unknown. Ten minutes ago…**

"Tell me again, what am I looking at?" the voice was gruff, and the speaker said this to people stationed in the site who hadn't discovered something unusual but had the pay-grade to report it.

"Sir". A woman holding a manila folder directed his attention towards the small graph and a map of America full of red marks.

"A minute ago, we detected a massive surge of energy around at exactly this point".

She said as she pointed to a certain area marked on the map.

"That's the open road, a hundred miles away from metropolis towards the East Coast. Superman's territory". The gruff man said in a low voice.

"What exactly is it? Is it something concerning the Justice league again?"

"We can't tell, sir. The problem is that with that power surge, the surrounding 10 mile (16.09 km) of radius has been basically fried. All sort of communication turned off for good. Drones within the area lost contact. I believe that area would be experiencing a power outage".

"Superman hasn't been reported seen anywhere near metropolis in the last three days. As for the possibility of being someone else, we can't confirm. The only chance we can think of is a possible Cadmus research facility located a few miles away from the said area. Whether it's their doing or not is unknown".

She said in an apathetic voice.

With the amount of crazy things that have taken place in the past how many years, things like this just weren't worth mentioning anymore.

The man clearly had a similar mentality. Not his fault though, as alien invasions and flying men wearing spandex capable of lifting buildings would do that to you.

This wasn't the first time someone had caused such a small ten block wipe-out.

"Primary conclusion draw a rough idea of an EMP blast, but the energy recorded could have fried the whole of Norther Washington, but it's somehow contained. Further, are just theories. We have a bird in the area". For a second, the woman stilled before she touched her earpiece, "Sir, we have the bird's eye visual, putting it on screen now."

For a second, the screen blacked out before a part of the area came into view, the shot was taken from a drone, and it showed a massive hole rig to the asphalt road, though it was grainy, but then the camera turned on Night Vision and showed its content they saw the hole as plain as day. The hole; bright blue on the NV.

"Turn on thermal vision", the gruff voice was back.

The screen turned again and this time they saw ... Nothing. Nothing different in particular from what it had initially shown. Except for the rather large hole on the road, nothing seemed to be out of place.

The male man sighed internally while rubbing his temples.

"If this is another one of Cadmus's experiments gone wrong..... So help me…." He sighed before remaining silent.

"Contacts arriving at the point of origin. ETA 30 minutes". The woman said.

"Get a team down there and let me know what exactly they can make of this. Furthermore, contact Cadmus and ask if this was one of their own". The answer was short, and the feed cut off immediately.

"Yes sir". She said before making her way out. The man couldn't help but look at her leaving figure, his eyes grew a little hot.

"Maybe I should take some time to loosen up".

As he sat in his office, what he didn't know was that the whole magical world on Earth was already in chaos.

The pure energy that surged through the East Coast may have stopped at a mere ten miles, but the dimensional barrier that had been broken, indicating some kind of intrusion in the fabric of space and time had alarmed the magical community.

As for the cause of the incident.

Well.... he was currently standing on top of a large building, gazing down at what humans would call a magnificent city.

"Well hello Metropolis".