"What the hell is going on?" Jacob opened his eyes and pressed his palm against his temple. He had a throbbing headache and felt as if his body was and wasn't there at the same time. "What did he just do to me?" He looked down at his hands and flexed them, then checked to see if the rest of himself was okay. Everything seemed to be intact and nothing felt out of place except an persistent dull ache coming from his abdomen. He was no longer in the front doorway of his home but instead was in a dimly lit room. The walls around him were a dull red color illuminated by flames that flickered with an impossible wind.
"So, you're the new guy? A measly child barely old enough to even stand on his own? This has got to be a joke." A deep voice rung out across the entire room. Jacob looked around trying to find the source of the voice but couldn't seem to find the origin. The room just kept bouncing the noises everywhere. "What? Too scared to come and face me?" The voice rung out again and but this time it had some sort of direction to it that hinted its origin. The voice this time had a little more impatience in its tone. Jacob began walking towards where he thought he had heard it originate. After walking for what felt like hours he reached what looked like a massive cage. He strained his eyes to see the inside of the cage and was able to recognize the vague silhouette of something inside.
"Who are you?" Jacob said as he neared the cage making sure to maintain a safe distance away from the cage. "who put you in here?" The figure turned to face Jacob and within a split second appeared against the bars. He could make out that this was a man but his skin looked like pure darkness and he seemed to have no eyes.
"The ignorant traitors in Minbroha did this to me. How do you not know this, child? What year is it? How long have i been sealed away in this incessant world?!" The man slammed his fists against the cage as he stared into Jacob's eyes searching for answers. Jacob staggered backwards caught off guard by the sudden aggression and murderous intent coming from the man. He wasn't sure where he was but he knew this man was dangerous and he had to get out of here.
"I-I'm not sure. We don't really go by years in my house. We just go day to day. Who are you?" Jacob was confused by the man's question. How long had this man been in this place? Jacob knew he was 13 which meant it had been about 13 billion years in the universe his family inhabited. He could say what year it was on the Earth but he felt as if this man did not want that answer.
"Who am I?" The man suddenly became more rigid and seemed to grow slowly until he became a lumbering beast of a man at least 8 feet tall. "I am the conqueror of worlds, the king of the cosmos, the ruler of all Nothing kind, The Master Nothing." His eyes shot open and Jacob stepped back as quickly as he could at the sight of the man's now burning red eyes. "I am The Dark Master, boy. Now let me out of this cage!" He bellowed as his hands slammed against the cage once more sending a resounding *bang* through the room. The force of his hit this time sent Jacob sprawling onto the ground and knocking the air from his lungs.
"I don't understand… Who is The Dark Master? Nothing you are saying makes any sense." Jacob looked up at the cage unsure whether he should get back up or if it was safer to stay close to the ground. Something was clearly being miscommunicated between them but he had no clue what he was talking about. His parents didn't talk about their home universe much and when they did it was mostly so they understood where their powers came from and why they had them.
"Who… You insolent little bastard. Let me out of here, now!" He bellowed. Jacob continued to look around the room until his eyes landed on what seemed like a doorway. He began walking towards it as The Dark Master yelled after him. "You are going to regret this! I will rip your family apart in front of you and make you wish you had released me sooner!"
He proceeded forward for what seemed like forever until he noticed the hallway shifted and three doors materialized on the other end of the hall. He rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't hallucinating anything and to his surprise, they were still there. Cautiously, he grasped the handle of one of them and opened it. Within was a room full of books and seemingly endless shelves extended farther than the eye could see. He closed the door and proceeded to open the other two. One held within it a swirling mass of nothingness and the other a stairway leading towards a light. He chose to follow the stairway with a light at the end Hoping for it to be his mother's light at the end of the staircase. The staircase seemed to extend endlessly as he climbed further and further, every step he took the stair above materialized another step. Hours had passed before he finally reached the door at the top. He smiled and opened it to a bright light that engulfed him as he passed through.
"Where am I?" He looked around only to find this world was nothing like what his was. The light in the sky came from a massive yellow orb in the sky. The trees grew in beautiful shades of yellow, red, purple, most of them however, were green. The grass felt hard against his touch as he knelt to inspect it. "This place isn't my home. How did I get here?"
"Who are you?" He whirled around to see a young boy on a blue piece of soft porous rock that seemed to swirl upwards into an alcove. This alcove connected into a larger area of a bright yellow metal he had never seen before. "How'd you get here? This playground is only for second graders but you look like one of the older kids." Jacob looked back at the kid and couldn't find the words he wanted to say.
"Uh… I-I'm not exactly sure how I got here. My name is Jacob. What's your name?" He extended his hand to the little boy but the little boy didn't shake it. The boy backed up the slide keeping his distance from the strange boy who just appeared from out of nowhere.
"I'm not supposed to give my name to strangers, but I can tell you where you are. This is my school. We are in Illinois on planet Earth in The United States. I like knowing stuff so I learned all that stuff. Where are you supposed to be?" The boy looked at Jacob and gave him a curious look. Jacob's skin seemed to shine slightly in the sunlight but his black as night hair absorbed all light hitting it in a way this child had never seen before. The mention of the word Earth caught Jacob off because this Earth was nothing like the one he had seen before.
"Did you say Earth?" Jacob's mind began to race as thoughts about the place he had been looking at seemed to be so much different than this place. What was going on here and why did it look so different? The Earth he was used to still had giant beasts on it with humans who looked primitive still. They were working with what they called Bronze and were yet to make this blue thing the boy was standing on.
"Yeah, why is that sound like such a surprise?"
"Well, I'm not really from around here. I have to find a way to get home." Jacob looked at the ground dejectedly as he thought about how he would get home.
"Well… I'm sure you can find a way. You just gotta believe in yourself, right? Recess is about over and I need to get going. Bye." The boy's teacher walked over and asked him what he was doing alone. The boy looked at his teacher and proceeded to tell her he wasn't alone and that he had made a new friend. The boy didn't really hang out much with the other kids because he felt out of place around them but the teacher was happy to know he had made a friend, even if it was imaginary to her. Jacob looked on at them completely shocked that the boy could see him but no one else could. What was going on here? He shook aside the thought and focused on getting home. He closed his eyes and began trying to will the door from before to materialize once more. The doors had just came to him before so maybe they would again if he knew exactly where he wanted to go... Home.