1 Superman?
Rick jolted awake, sitting up with a start, his head throbbing in pain.
"Argh, what the...?" He groaned, his voice thick with confusion as he blinked away the haze of disorientation, trying to make sense of his surroundings.
There was an intense pulsing in his brain as if it were struggling to contain an overflow of information, memories pouring in like a flood.
"Fuck... no way." Rick cursed under his breath as the pain gradually subsided, allowing him to regain some semblance of clarity in his thoughts.
He was finally able to look through his memories to understand what had happened.
It seems he had reincarnated into another world and awakened his previous life's memories.
In this world, he was a 16-year-old orphan currently in high school.
In his previous life, he had joined the army with the naive goal of protecting his home, thinking it was the place to do so.
In the end, though he realized that what they were doing was destroying the homes of other people in the name of protecting his own.
After speaking out against the war, he was shot in the back by his own soldiers during an ambush on their camp.
His life had been one big story of regret. Now he had the chance to start over and he would gladly accept it.
He quickly tossed away any feelings of attachment to his previous life. Though it helped that he already had 16 years of memories in this new world.
Going through his memories, he could see that for the most part, the world was exactly the same.
However, there were some discrepancies here and there. For example, some big-name companies from his previous life couldn't be found.
Coming back to reality, he glanced around his room.
It was small and only contained a bed and desk.
Rick knew he was currently still living in an orphanage so he was more than satisfied with his current arrangements.
In fact, he was kind of lucky. Since he was one of the older kids, he had the privilege of having his own room.
Rick was about to get up and begin making his way to the bathroom when he suddenly paused.
'Strange, what's this feeling...?" He closed his eyes and focused his mind.
He didn't realize it at first, but since he woke up, there had been this odd sensation he was feeling.
As he strained his brain even harder, he started to become acutely aware of some sort of energy that permeated the space around him.
Instinctively, he tried to reach out with his mind and grasp it, but found himself unable to do so.
Switching tactics, he attempted to absorb the energy.
The moment he did so, he felt whatever it was begin to pour into his body.
He hastily tried to halt the absorption, but before he could, his consciousness blacked out.
---
A few hours later
Rick was roused from his sleep by the gnawing sensation of hunger.
Before he had time to even register his surroundings, his senses were assaulted by an overload of information.
He felt as if he could smell and hear everything in South Florida from the beaches to the suburbs.
Whether it be a freshly opened bag of chips or the whispers of some primary school children.
Everything felt as if it were right next to him.
Not only that but he seemed to also be able to hear their inner thoughts as well.
Opening his eyes, everything that was once solid now appeared translucent, their inner working laid bare for him to see.
Looking around, he was able to see directly through the orphanage walls.
Around the bodies of his fellow orphans, a faint warm glow could also be seen indicating life.
Rick shut his eyes again. This time he focused on calming his breathing.
Slowly but surely he calmed down. Along with that, the deluge of information slowly receded.
Opening his eyes again, this time with regular vision. Rick took a deep breath.
'Super-smell, super-hearing, telepathy, x-ray vision, infrared vision....'
Standing up from the bed, he reached down and lifted the whole bed frame with one finger.
'Super-strength...'
'So... I have superpowers....' He thought to himself, a bit dumbfounded.
Dying and reincarnating was already shocking enough, now it turns out that he has superpowers and this world is probably not as simple as it seems.
After all, he wasn't naive enough to believe he was the only one with superpowers. A fact that made him even more excited for this new life.
'Looks like I am going to have to change some of the plans I had for the future.
For now, though let's continue with my current schedule until I figure out my next steps. Today should be Saturday so I have two days until I need to return to school.'
Rick closed his eyes again as he began to sense the energy again. Though, this time, he was able to make out different types in his surroundings.
He seemed to instinctively know what these energies were after the previous absorption.
It was electromagnetic radiation from the sun.
From radio waves to gamma rays.
After waking up, he understood that the reason he passed out before was because he had absorbed the combined mixture of all of these.
Reaching out with his mind, he focused on the gamma rays and began absorbing them.
Sure enough, nothing bad happened. The only thing he felt was a warm sensation coursing through his body. He could feel his physical strength increasing by the minute.
From what he understood, after absorbing each form of electromagnetic radiation, he unlocked a special ability corresponding to it.
For example, radio waves allowed him to awaken telepathy.
That meant that as long as he absorbed radio waves, he could continue to increase the strength of his telepathy.
That went for each of the abilities he gained.
Feeling a bit excited, Rick began making his way towards the bathroom so he could freshen up.
Glancing at the clock in the hallway, he could see that it was already the afternoon.
--
10 minutes later
Rick was already making his way downstairs.
Along the way, he ran into other children from the orphanage running around.
Entering the kitchen, he found a plate with his name marked on it that had already been prepared.
Taking it back to the dining room table he began wolfing it down.
In less than five minutes, he already cleaned the plate.
Though he was still hungry, he understood that would have to do for now. The orphanage wasn't exactly swimming in money.
After informing the headmistress that he would be back later, Rick made his way out the front door.
He planned to find a location to practice his powers.
---
Sunset
Inside an abandoned church a few blocks away from the orphanage, the figure of Rick could be seen standing in the middle of an opening.
The next second his figure disappeared from the spot, materializing in another location across the room.
It didn't stop there though. He would disappear and reappear at random locations around the church.
At some point though, his body disappeared and never reappeared again. The only thing that said he was still here was the sound of his footsteps every time he completed a teleport as well as the dust he would kick up.
After a while, he finally stopped and reappeared in the middle of the church.
Glancing around, he decided it was time to go.
With a thought, he disappeared from his spot, reappearing in his bedroom at the orphanage.
His little experiment had been a major success and he now had a preliminary understanding of his powers.
He has super strength, hearing, smell, taste, and sight. He has X-ray and infrared vision. He is a telepath, can generate heat, manipulate light so that he becomes invisible, and also teleport. He has super healing and can also release radiation beams of various types along with being able to manipulate energy in general.
For now, these were the abilities he had uncovered. However, he was sure that the more radiation he absorbed the more chances of him awakening a new power.
It was safe to say he was now a veritable superman.
Plopping down on his bed, Rick tried to calm the turbulent emotions he was currently feeling.
He had literally just died and somehow reincarnated into another world with his memories intact.
Not to mention, a world where superpowered people exist.
And he somehow is one of them...
He didn't know if he should feel this way but he was kind of happy he had died.
It had brought him into a world he could have only ever dreamed about.
A world where he had the power to change the things he cared about.
