4 Chapter 4 – Another new world and gangs. Yay!

(Authors note: Just to be clear Alex and Makenzie are the same person)

January 1st 2002 (3rd POV)

Waking with a start Makenzie rolled off the cot he'd been resting on. Trying to stand proved a fruitless endeavour, his vision swimming in and out of focus as his mind struggled to comprehend his new existence. Alex grabbed onto the side of the cot struggling to control his breathing as memories unfamiliar to him banged around inside his head.

Even more worrisome was that Makenzie's own memories felt foreign to his mind. Not able to make heads or tails of his situation Alex did his best to steady his legs before standing and making a mad dash for a washroom he shouldn't have known about. Confused voices sounded out around him as he ran but he ignored them in his hurry.

Arriving in the washroom holding onto the wall to steady his legs he scrambled up to the sink in order to look into the full length mirror only for the air to rush out of his lungs at what he saw. A boy of roughly 12 - why didn't he know his age - stood in front of the mirror. He had light brown hair and bright green eyes. He was tall for his presumed age standing 5'3 and had a physique clearly designed for running. 

Horrified Alex stared in disbelief at a face that didn't belong to him, yet he was the one looking into the mirror of that there could be no doubt. For all of a moment Makenzie's fuddled brain snapped into focus on the image in the mirror subconsciously it conjured another individual to stand by his body. He barely had time to recognize it as his before the fog in his mind came back with a vengeance.

Years of life he couldn't have lived ravaged through his mind as he desperately fought to hold onto himself within the storm. Alex's childhood played out next to another's in his mind - both were his - one a happy child playing with his family, another living in poverty, an orphanage with too many mouths. Streets too cruel for someone as young as he. Hands grabbed him from behind, his body lashed out instinctively but the grip was too strong and Makenzie had forgotten his knife under his pillow in his dazed rush.

Whoever had grabbed him didn't appreciate the resistance and attempted to strike Alex but years of Martial arts training he didn't have made him duck and stomp down on the man's foot with his heel. His efforts were rewarded with a hiss of pain and another set of hands grabbing his legs fully immobilising his body. He could barely focus on what was happening around him as he was moved. The world continued spinning around him from his now horizontal angle.

Mackenzie recognized the familiar feel of his cot as the people holding him wrestled to keep him held down. A prickle drew his attention but before he could fully focus on it darkness began to creep up around the edges of his vision. 

'Ha told those assholes they'd need drugs to ever keep me down' His last thought was full of amusement at a situation he didn't know anything about.

…

"Jesus christ what the hell happened to this kid? Jerad I thought you said you had him handled already? Is that what you call handled?" Rick complained as they stuffed Makenzie's unconscious body into a van waiting outside of the homeless shelter they'd come out from.

"Fuck off Anthony! Something clearly happened to the little shit. What with the way he was swaying down the halls and sprinting towards the washroom. If anything we got lucky the fucker wasn't even aware enough to scream." Jerad shot back as he got into the driver's seat and took off towards Hell's Kitchen. 

The Russian's human trafficking ring has been getting hit hard lately and to recover losses while they hunt the one responsible they've posted a bounty reward for good looking children to make up for their losses. Jerad and Anthony have been picking off kids from homeless shelters for the last few weeks in order to make enough money to move overseas to Europe to get away from their debts with the Yakuza.

Stopping at their usual drop off they got out of the car and wordlessly opened the trunk before stepping away so the Russian Lieutenant could inspect the goods. Taking a moment to look over Makenzie's delicate facial features the man stepped back, gave a nod to his underlings who pulled their guns opening fire immediately killing Jerad and Anthony. Giving their corpses a look of disdain the Lieutenant hopped into the vans driver seat before driving off towards a run down hotel in an abandoned area of Hell's Kitchen. 

…

Coming to Alex - still feeling the lingering effects of the drugs in his system - gave a glazed look at his surroundings, noticing the other beds filled with children and the two men guarding the door. Attempting to sit up ended with a flare of pain in his shoulders as his bound arms tugged him back to the bed. Fear rushed through him abruptly bringing Makenzie to full focus as he released what had happened to him.

He'd thought those two bastards who'd arrived at the shelter recently had been suspicious. He'd been preparing to move shelters to get away from them but they must've panicked because of his episode this morning and rushed the job. Knowing that those two were forced to mess up their plans to get him brought some satisfaction to Makenzie and served to help calm him down as he began to observe his surroundings. 

He took note of the fact that the two men at the door were aware he was awake since they were openly laughing at his struggle to escape his bonds. Alex worked to go through his memories to try and see if there was anything he could do about his situation. 

It wasn't promising. Mackenzie was an orphan who'd been forced out of the orphanage he'd been raised at by the time he was 8 forced to make a living eating garbage and stealing whatever valuables he could. No one would notice his disappearance. That meant he had to do something to get himself free.

Doing a quick scan of his surroundings showed nothing helpful but Makenzie remained optimistic that they'd be forced to feed/move him eventually and he'd get an opportunity to escape then. 

Unfortunately that enthusiasm was squashed quickly when a man entered into the room carrying a syringe he injected into one of the young girls occupying a bed 3 over on Alex's left before loosening her bindings enough so she could walk on her own. Watching her stumble and drool her way out of the room sent his mind back into a panic and he started thrashing in his bed hoping to knock something loose that he could use. 

"Hey you little shit quiet down." Annoyed by the loud sounds, one of the Russian men guarding the door walked over to Makenzie and punched him in the stomach. Desperately repressing his gag reflex Makenzie glared in hatred at the man but that only served to encourage him.

"Oh look what we have here. What's with the glare kid? You might hurt someone with that thing." Mocking smile evident on his face the man raised his fist before punching Makenzie in the head a couple times. 

"We can't damage you too badly, we don't want to hurt that pretty little face but that doesn't mean we can't discipline a disrespectful brat. Remember that kid and mind your manners from now on." Alex tried to respond but his surroundings started to darken into what was quickly becoming an annoying trend. The last thing he felt before succumbing to darkness once more was an unfamiliar feeling of rage rising up into his chest.

Hours later when night had long since fallen Makenzie's passed out body began to produce black smoke that wrapped itself around Makenzie's body like a cocoon. Under the layer of darkness Makenzie's body grew taller and stronger as the smoke solidified into a black cloak surrounding him and a white mask grew over his face.

 Slowly raising his head from his chest Gaberial Rayes, better known now as Reaper, cracked his neck before quickly reviewing Makenzie's memories. Not even glancing to his left as the two Russian men let out exclamations of shock he raised his arms and fired two shotgun shells followed by the familiar sound of bodies dropping to the floor. Laughing to himself at what he saw in the boy's memories his body dematerialized and swiftly moved over to the beds of all the awake children before sending them off in a similar fashion. 

Silently Reaper exited the building via a broken window flowing down to the ground floor before entering the hotel once more and commencing a massacre of all its residents. Reaper wouldn't allow anyone who might expose the boy's powers to walk out of this building. Ultimately Reaper ended up on the roof with 3 dozen kids locked away in rooms underneath him and half a dozen more corpses for the original to deal with when he regained consciousness. 

Looking at the deathly quiet streets of Hell's Kitchen under him, a stark contrast to the bustling vibrant streets in the rest of the city thriving with life even at night. Hell's Kitchen's reputation for being a den for all the trash in this city seemed to be true. As Reaper scanned the dead streets, he let out a sigh as he realised how much time it would take to finish his task. 'But no matter one way or another the Russians will disappear today.'

1 hour and a half later. Reaper was standing on the roof opposite a rundown hotel that was in an isolated corner of Hell's Kitchen. If it hadn't been for his enhanced senses and his partial understanding of the Russian language, he might have missed this spot. Unluckily for the trash in the building he did find them and now that he knew where they were they weren't going to get away from him.

(AN: so first changes are showing up. Like I mentioned when listing my reasons to rewrite. the arc with his family seemed pointless to me upon rewrite so I've done away with that and moved the timeline forward as well. I still plan on giving Makenzie some connections with resident Marvel characters but for now this seemed like a better way to introduce his power. It also gives more importance on the Makenzie-Alex union since Makenzie is a very different person compared to Alex unlike in the original.)