My name is Greg Veder
I am fifteen years old, and three days ago, I was just some normal teenager in Brockton Bay.
But now?
I was a Cape—well, not yet technically, but I was a parahuman nonetheless—someone with great power, and an equally great responsibility- kinda of the whole thing with all great superheroes. Anyways, in short, I have superpowers.
It was pretty cool, but I was sorta stuck on contemplating what I should do.
If I had a normal superpower or someone like Eidolon's, I wouldn't have needed to think it over- I probably would've started suiting up honestly. But there was something about my superpowers that weren't normal, or at least, there aren't any capes having mentioned foreign memories or knowledge from a god after they obtained their superpowers. Though, those sort of news could've been covered up…
Besides that, It was honestly still a bit hard to believe even with the fact that I had actual superpowers. But, I had to accept that fact, the memories were too realistic, I now knew four alien languages seemed proof enough for me, and then there was the strange soul-space.
Now, you'd think that because I gained the powers from a possible god, I was now going to begin mention that I was now possibly the strongest parahuman above even the likes of the Triumvirate or Scion, with plans to defeat the Endbringers for the good of humanity– but sorry to say, but I'm not gonna do that any time soon.
I was... weak.
Not to sound ungrateful or anything but the simple truth was, the superpowers I gained were not combat-oriented; enhanced intelligence, senses, and some minor illusions just aren't enough to win me any fights against any parahuman here in Brockton Bay, let alone against any of the three Endbringers.
I was in game terms, a noob. But that didn't bother me, because from the power tests I did myself and quite possibly god-given knowledge, there were two ways to improve and get stronger.
The first method was through "faith". It probably meant people believing I exist or something like that, easy enough— gods wanting faith for whatever reason was a common enough theme in most games and books I read. But there was an issue with that, which I'll explain later.
The second method I haven't confirmed yet, but I noticed that I seemed to be getting smarter and more perceptive? It's kind of hard to describe, but I found myself remembering more details in things that I normally wouldn't. The current theory was that the strange dreams I've been having, in a place I've been calling "soul-space"—yeah, that was the best I had—was causing it.
My assumption came from the sense of heat and warmth from the dream, but I couldn't confirm that theory.
The reason for that was because I couldn't remain conscious. It was kind of like dreaming in a way and that was my original assumption as well, but the dream kept happening every night and the improvements were noticeable. That was why I've pretty much spent most of the weekend learning meditation and lucid-dreaming techniques to see if that would help. I think it did, it's been getting "clearer." Which meant it was only a matter of time, nothing too concerning. The real issue I was struggling with was the first method; Faith.
"How do I gain faith?" I thought aloud.
I mean, I understood how to gain faith—show stunning powers and have people praying to me—the issue was thinking of a way to convince people to worship me. Perhaps if I was the only one with superpowers, then I could see people worshipping me, but I wasn't the only one with superpowers. There were like several hundreds of thousands of parahumans, and most of them had superpowers that did more than just making them smarter and creating minor illusions.
It felt a bit disappointing, but it seemed like I was one of, if not the weakest parahuman on Earth(s).
If my powers were strong enough, I could see myself convincing people that I was some sort of god. There were already people who thought Scion was the Messiah, Simurgh an angel, or that powers were magic. It didn't seem impossible to get someone to worship me, but the difference between someone like Scion and me was like I said earlier; worlds apart. That meant I had to find a way to get people to have faith in me without relying on my powers, a reputation I don't have, or connections I again don't have.
Several ideas came to mind but none of them would've worked. They either had too many flaws, relied too much on luck, not possible, or too dangerous.
I needed time to think it over and brainstorm a plan. Which is somewhat hampered by the fact that I had school for pretty much the entire week minus Sunday, but I guess it doesn't take long for me to finish sc—Wait... What time is it?
I glanced at the clock– "Shoot!" I immediately bolted out of my room and rushed downstairs. I unlocked the door, not forgetting to lock the door behind me, before I ran down the street as fast as I could. There wasn't much time left, I was already several minutes late. I prayed that Mr. Drew was late this morning like he sometimes was, I did not want to miss school again this month.
I rounded the corner of the street and there, several blocks down, I noticed the familiar, orange-tinted school bus. I felt a bit relieved as I slowed just for a moment, before I ran again towards the bus passing several blocks.
I crossed the road and walked toward the side of the bus where the doors were, I felt a bit tired but more relieved than anything I managed to make it in time. The doors opened with a whoosh, and there in the driver's seat was Mr. Drew, looking down at his watch.
"Almost fifteen minutes late, Greg." He looked up at me with... fatigue?
I couldn't tell what kind of expression he had but I felt a bit embarrassed and also glad that he waited fifteen minutes.
"I'm sorry, I.." The words were stuck on the tip of my tongue. The words I could normally say without much thought became difficult, I didn't know what to say. The urge to make up an excuse- lie welled up inside me, it would've been easy, yet it only weighed down my tongue further.
"I- I won't be late again," were the only words I managed to say.
Mr. Drew waved it off. "It's fine, it's quite common and this is the first time." He made a gesture towards the back as he faced the front and pulled the door lever.
Whooooosh
The doors closed behind me.
"Just take a seat Greg."
"Thanks Mr. Drew," I said to him before I walked towards where my seat was at the back of the bus. I heard a 'no problem' before I felt the bus lurch forward as it started to move.
I looked around and felt glad that no one seemed to have cared that I was several minutes late. It was quiet and everyone was doing their own thing, or getting a few more minutes of sleep in. It was one of the things I liked about this bus, there weren't many students here and everyone was super duper quiet.
Since no one seemed to mind, I decided to close my eyes and rest against the window.
I tried to tune the world out while searching for the connection. As I focused on tuning everything out while searching, I couldn't help but notice everything beginning to soften; the usual bus' rattling, the hum of the engine, and even voices.
It felt a bit good to see three days of meditation being worth it, because it wasn't easy sitting still.
It was at this moment, I felt a flare of warmth and chill pulsing throughout my body. I immediately focused on that feeling and "followed" it — that's the best I could describe what I was doing. I tried not to get distracted, I didn't waste three (3) days of training just to fail.
Suddenly, I felt a shift.
Then I felt warmth coursing through me, I felt… strong. I took a sharp breath to take in the feeling before I noticed something else, it was… unique. I was here, I knew and could feel myself here, yet faintly… I was somewhere else.
No, not somewhere. I was still inside the bus with my eyes closed, leaning against the window. "This is so weird…" I took a few moments to get a better feel for the weird feeling before I opened my eyes– "Damn…" My heart raced at what I saw. For probably several kilometres, there was a grey mist that hung low on the ground, faintly obscuring the smokey black stone floor. But far in the distance, beyond giant black pillars with dimly glowing sigils too far to makeout, was nothing but grey mist.
"What's up with the grey mist?" I had no idea what the deal with it was, it did look cool though. Glancing down, there was more of the grey mist, seemingly kind of… drifting over my body? It was kind of freaky, in a sort of cool way, how the mist behaved. It was to the point that the mist obscured practically everything, the only I could make out were shadows.
I wonder if it follows me… I put that thought to the test and waved my arm. Some of the mist slowly fell away while I waved but there didn't seem to be much of a difference from before. "Really strange…" I waved my arm a few more times, watching the way the grey mist seemed to move about.
It was weirdly fascinating.
Then, in the corner of my eye, I noticed something leaning against the throne I was sitting on. "What is that?" Reaching down, I picked it up. "A… mask?" It sort of resembled a mask, but weird. It was made out of some kind of pale grey material that felt smooth yet rough to the touch; it sort of reminded me of my mom's jade necklace. Another thing was that it didn't have any indents or holes for a nose or eyes, and the strangest thing was that small amounts of the grey mist seemed to be rolling off of it.
"Should I… put it on?" I wasn't sure if putting on the mask would be a good idea, but at the same time… "He wouldn't place this item near him if it was dangerous, right?" I thought about it for a moment.
"Probably not, but something harmless to him might not be harmless to me…" I struggled with deciding if I should put the mask on or not.
That was when I felt a sudden tap on my shoulder. I jumped out of the chair as I quickly turned around, only to see nothing. "What?" I was confused for a moment, then I felt another faint tap on my shoulder. There was no one around, what's going on?
I felt a faint nudge on my shoulder. With no one around, I focused on the feeling for a moment, and then I felt a familiar feeling. It was one I felt before, the strange feeling of being somewhere else at the same time, faintly.
"Is someone tapping my shoulders on the bus?" It was kind of obvious. "How do I… get out?" I felt another nudge on my shoulder.
"Maybe…" Closing my eyes, I focused on the other "me." Perhaps doing what I did to get here would work? Who knows. I felt the warmth coursing through me flare for a moment before I winced at the sudden brightness.
I could softly make out a whole bunch of noise.
"H-..." I felt another nudge my shoulder. I actually felt it that time, I kept blinking to get adjusted to the light.
"Wake- " I couldn't quite hear the rest of the words, it was like I was refocusing my senses. There was another nudge and this time, I could open my eyes. The first thing I noticed were hands, and then an arm. I narrowed my eyes slightly to adjust to the light and looked up…. Huh