A Second Retry

Death... A deep sleep phenomenon.

People coin it as the end of the road — one's final act before being punted 6feet under. For some, they see death as the end of something old and the beginning of something new. Others see death as the absolute stop - there is nothing left to be done.

For the religious, they believe in that unproven and unscientific 'something' which comes after death, a judgment or reincarnation of sorts... Although the atheist begs to differ.

As for me... I honestly don't know 'What' to believe in.

For as much as the theory of faith is only that; faith. There is a hope I secretly carry that is something after death that rewards us for our actions be it good or bad... The more rational part of me hollers that such a thing is impossible.

Now I know what you're all wondering.

Why all this talk of death? Why spew sentimental crap like what lies after death?

Hah... That's easy.

I am dead after all.

ᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥ

Bob opened his eyes—no, that's wrong.

"!"

In a certain unique way that couldn't be explained. Bob had the strangest sensation of his eyes being opened - despite the obvious dark dullness.

"Where... Where am I?"

Even his vocal cords sounded quite strange. It was normal in a way, but never had it sound so... Dead.

With an impression of looking around, Bob beheld where he currently is. It was a dark location, rather murky in a way. The twinkling lights in the distance gave this place - if this was even a place- a queer artistic panorama.

"The last thing I remember was..."

Bob wasn't given time to pounder on the nature of this place, because like a mental dam, his memories came slamming right out.

(Night – road – traffic lights – loud blare – bright lights – truck – pain – pain – pain - … - darkness )

"Ah..." Bob's impassive voice echoed in realization, "So I've finally croaked, huh."

One could say that the manner upon which Bob treated his current predication is quite unnerving. Not far from the truth as Bob really couldn't bring himself to care about it.

⸙⸙⸙⸙⸙⸙⸙⸙

They say that after death you leave many a great things behind — Bob refutes such a statement with every fiber of his being.

After all, what did he leave behind?

As a child, Bob had a dream, an ambition... To leave a legacy for others to look up to and follow.

Was it from a documentary, an autobiography, a memoire...? Bob couldn't exactly pinpoint what had influenced him into having such an ambition, but such a goal had been in heart as he grew up.

It wasn't going to be easy, Bob understood that much. To leave behind a lasting legacy required a drive and effort that is beyond the norm.

But he had the will to trudge through the path...

Studies, compartmentalizing, socializing, stratagems... It was an arduous ordeal, Bob had to admit.

Time and time again there was this lethargy that arose within him. A little noise whispering that it wouldn't be enough. But Bob never listened to it... All the time and resources spent in pursuing his goal should —must— not be in vain.

Also, it was quite fun. The challenges and trails set before he were just hurdles... Hurdles that spoke of the great rewards that lies ahead.

⸙⸙⸙⸙⸙⸙⸙⸙

It was before Bob, his goal was right in front of him. It was finally his moment, his turn to begin a path that would etch him into the annals of history.

All those sleepless nights spent in order to improve his chances by a smidge was currently paying off. Bob could proudly say that he truly is a winner...

Unfortunately, life is a spiral of surprises. Just one little nudge, one small action and every single thing comes crashing down like a pile of stacked cards.

Maybe Bob shouldn't have let his morality had the higher ground and take the offer that was given to him - however depraved it seemed... Maybe... Ah, what the use?

It's too late to contemplate on it anyway.

Just like a dream it was all gone.

Riches... Fame... Influence...

A classical comedy of a grass to grace to grass anecdote...

ᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥ

"So this is death, or is it the afterlife..." Bob muttered swerving around. "Can't say that I'm impressed either way."

Bob felt like he was place in an empty room – an endlessly vast empty room. There was space to move around, but the view always remained the same.

Honestly, Bob had never felt thankful for this new package of muted emotions as he was now. He should have been freaking out by now.

"Heh. The religionists and the atheists were neither right nor wrong... There is something after death... Only the something appears to be nothing..."

Giving the faintest impression of a shrug, Bob shut down his metaphorical eyes and went to sleep. If this was death - a place of peace after a life of hardships and struggles...

Bob would take it.

This is better than that hell called life after all.

ͽͽͽͽͽͽͽͽͽͽͽͽͽͽͽͽͽͽ

Though I should have suspected that there was something clichéd in all this.

Heck, the telltale signs were all there!

But can you blame me – The last time I'd seriously watched anything remotely fun was literally a life time ago.

ͽͽͽͽͽͽͽͽͽͽͽͽͽͽͽͽͽͽ

Bob couldn't tell exactly how long he had been 'asleep'.

Days, weeks, years, decade, centuries, millennia... Time didn't matter to him anymore. For Bob, there is only quiet and the void - and the peace it brings.

That was all that matters... Only this time something is different.

*Fwoosh...*Fwoosh...*Fwoosh...*

Allegorical eyes cranked open with Bob looked around in bewilderment.

"Hmm. Is that... Sound?"

Confusion suffused Bob who cranked to the side to see what was happening. Though upon turning, Bob felt his breath hitch.

A gilded tide. Resplendently painting the horizon with a golden sheen, an enormous body of water gushed towards him.

"Wh-What the hell is that?!"

*Fwoosh!*Fwoosh!*Fwoosh!*

Its steadily aggregating rumble spurred Bob out of his trance. While Bob's emotions has been muted a great deal as a result of his death. There was something in the approaching waves that felt quite alien to him.

Bob, for an unexplainable reason didn't want to get caught up in that.

Unfortunately, there is just one problem with that.

"Grrr...! Hmph...! Hah...!"

Try as he might, Bob couldn't move an inch from his position. Bob, ever since he got here strangely hadn't tried moving from the supposed spot he found himself – he just never saw the need to do so.

Currently, Bob's decision is now biting him in the ass.

"Shit! Shit! Shit! It's getting closer!"

*Fwoosh!*Fwoosh!*Fwoosh!*

Hollering and cursing every divine name that popped out his head, Bob could only remain helpless and unmoving as the glided tide came crashing unto him with a turbulent roar.

"Aaaaaahhhhh...!"

And so Bob's time spent in the void came to an end as his world turned blinding yellow.

ᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥ

{Good luck out there... Me}

ᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥ

"Aaaahhhhhhh— huh?!"

Like the flip of a switch, Bob's view instantly changed.

Where there ought to be a murky dullness and twinkling dots in the distance—or even a sea of gold, Bob saw the vast bright expanse of space with its more vivid stars painting the dark sea... Oh, and there's also the blue planet; Earth, Bob is also currently staring right at this moment.

A sudden sense of awareness, one Bob had surmised forever lost to him coursed through him. Flinching, Bob raised his hands, staring at them for the first time since... Well, forever.

His body was back, 5 senses returned—no, that's wrong... Bob felt like he was restored to a state greater than his prime. To put it more aptly... It felt like the power of a million exploding suns coursing through his body.

Wincing, a stream of memories assailed him. Memories of a life Bob never lived. A life where the impossible was the norm... Where aliens, gods, and men were placed on the same footing in the cosmos.

A life that 'He' was a part of...

A name burbled up within Bob, escaping his lips out into the ether.

"Sentry..."

Blinking, Bob shook his head as he looked at his now Adonis chiseled body with a sense of awe. Pushing back, the blond locks that obscured his view, Bob looked around his surroundings.

"The moon, huh... That I haven't seen any Inhuman coming to detain me, means either they're not around, or..." Bob's eye narrowed as he utilized his new enhanced senses to scour the natural satellite in an instant. "I'm not where this body originally came from."

Rather than a city at the 'blue side' of the moon. Bob's enhanced perception was meet with a large space station 7 miles away. It was moderately large... Kind of like a facility if Bob had any say about it.

But it was an abandoned facility, Bob couldn't hear nor see anything moving within the edifice.

"Hmph... Expenditures spent on something that wasn't even utilized... Banally typical." Bob snorted.

There was an itch to check the facility out, but the itch died just as it quickly as it had surfaced.

Bob couldn't think of anything within the building that could interest him and who knows. The facility, though abandoned still ran on electricity. Entering without permission is the best way to put himself within the government's radar – that, he doesn't fancy at all.

"That just leaves me with Earth..." Bob thought as he began to hover. "If anything S.H.I.E.L.D like hasn't gotten image of me yet."

Supersonic booms ripped off chunks of moon rocks as Bob flitted off en route of the blue globe.

ᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥ

It's been over 5 minutes that Bob hanged above the Earth's thermosphere, but he hadn't made descent to land – the reason being what he had seen on the said land.

"This is earth, right?" Bob muttered, eyes darting around at sub-luminal speeds while bearing a perplexed expression.

With Bob's now superhuman senses, he could see the entire world like a sheet of paper despite being thousands of meters up.

The planet had the same atmosphere. The flora and fauna were recognizable. Familiar structures were also telltale signs of the planet being Earth... Nevertheless, Bob felt like he had arrived at the wrong time.

The planet is mostly empty...

Dilapidated buildings - some tilted in funny ways, and others covered in overgrown foliage. The eco-system is totally messed up as Bob had seen deserts in places where there shouldn't be deserts and seas where there shouldn't be seas. Erosion had destroyed the land, carving out deformed canyons and ditches...

It's like the aftermath of an apocalypse.

Bob now as a being incapable of sweating, gulped as he gazed upon the ruined Earth. One question thrumming in his heart...

'Where are the humans?'

Bob had seen many things from his higher vantage point. Things that ought to belong in the world the Sentry had come from - steel robots and very-very-very human like robots. It wasn't much, but the very few interactions Bob had seen both beings had with each other mostly led to a battle to the death...

"I'd died from being hit by a truck. Became somewhat of a soul, spending my time in a void like place for an unknown number of years. Drowned in a massive wave of golden water. Given superpowers, and dumped in a post-apocalyptic world... Hah, Just golden..."

Bob's next course of action was already clear – there was absolutely no need to deliberate.

"This is my vacation, isn't it?"

A world of peace and quiet, where he can spend the rest of his life – in the forest surrounded by trees and vibrant wildlife. Growing crops, breathing in fresh air and just taking it easy.

Bob didn't know what had happened to humanity - maybe they had taken to the stars, ascended to be gods, or plain old became extinct (like that ain't karma at its finest).

But Bob knew that pondering over it would solve nothing – it would only be tormenting. The least he can to do is to live – the power of a million exploding suns would help in furthering that.

Bob huffed, "Well, that's that and here's to my new life in a post-apocalyptic world."

A streak of light tore down towards the Earth like a golden meteor.

ᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥ

His arrival for auspicious as it is brought no immediate change to world.

The war between Androids created by humans to combat the Machines sent by the alien invaders carried on its anthem. Just like it had always been for thousands of years...

Then again, Bob's arrival is like a stone being dropped on a still water... It will (must) surely ripple.

The changes his golden light will bring in the world of steel and rust...

Whether for better or worse, remains to be seen.

ᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥ

"2B, what's wrong?"

The blindfolded battle-android surrounded by cadavers of machines and endless desert sands, paused as she stared into the distance.

2B's right hand was placed on her chest, while clenching her sword tightly with her left. For an unexplainable reason, 2B felt a tugging of sorts – to where is the question.

"2B?"

Shaking her head, 2B replied. "It's nothing, 9S."

"Hmm~ if you say so."

Nodding, both Androids continued on their journey.

'It's nothing...' 2B said as the tugging reaffirmed itself once more. 'Absolutely nothing.'