Prologue 1:
…
- Tridente City, Xebel, Atlantis
- January 17, 2003
Namor, an eleven-year-old boy, swam through the dimly lit corridors of the Xebelian military barracks in Tridente City, trying to reach his small dormitory to rest after a grueling and exhausting training session on his seventh day of mandatory military service. The sparse lights in the corridors illuminated the aquatic pathways and the marine stone walls.
Namor had trained hard all day. His body was exhausted, his muscles aching from the exertion. As he approached his room, his mind was filled with thoughts about the tough training and his future goals.
Upon reaching his room's door, he paused for a moment, taking a deep breath.
"Just a little more…" he told himself, trying to muster the last drops of energy. With a sigh, he pushed the door open and entered. Unknowingly, as he reached his dormitory door and stepped inside, he was heading towards a destiny that would change his life forever.
Well... actually, it would change his destiny for the second time.
Why the second time, you might ask? Simple, he wasn't really Namor.
He wasn't any of the Namors you might think of...
Neither the ridiculously powerful one from Marvel, nor the young atlantean orphan of 11 years old born in Xebel, one of the city-states of Atlantis in the DC world, located in the South Atlantic Ocean and ruled by King Ryus Nereus.
In fact, he was Adam Thomas Amen, an ordinary human from a place known as Earth-Prime where the DC world existed only as fantasy and fiction... Or he was in the past, as it had been a year since Adam started living his life as the young atlantean orphan known as Namor in this world where DC characters were very real.
Oh, and yes, his name was just Namor, he didn't even have a last name as it seemed not all atlanteans have one. And no, he didn't have the same abilities as the Marvel Namor, he was actually even a little below the average of other atlanteans in terms of physical abilities.
Anyway, he had never lived a perfect life...
'Or even a normal one…' now that he thought about it. But then, what's normal for one person can be completely abnormal for another, so who knows, right?
Still, he could assure you that his life, regardless of whatever level of normality it might have once had, was definitely not the same now. The reality he lived in now wasn't the reality he was born into, but it was quite similar... you know, besides the atlantean and aliens… those were new here. Oh, well… all that and the fact that he literally lived underwater in a far more advanced city. But Earth was still Earth for the most part, though he was getting ahead of himself.
His name was Adam Thomas Amen, and this was the story of his life—how he ended up in another universe as Namor and went from being a simple human to an atlantean. Also, it will be a first-hand account of all the future events surrounding the Justice League and the greatest battles in history, since naturally he's going to be on the front lines during all that shit. But that was far from where his story began.
So… his story started on Earth-Prime in January of 2025…
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-Jackson, Mississippi, USA, Earth-Prime (real world)
It was another beautiful day in Jackson, Mississippi. From the rooftop of the tallest building in the city, fifteen-year-old Adam Thomas Amen gazed out over the urban landscape as the sun shone brightly in the sky. The view only reinforced why so many considered Jackson a charming city, despite the shadows that always seemed to follow him.
Jackson was his home, his city. And despite the fact that he had seen that view countless times throughout his life, he always found himself falling in love with it again, as if he were seeing it for the first time. Maybe it was because of the hard life he had lived there, a life that had shaped him into who he was today... Adam had literally grown up on the streets.
His mother had been a prostitute, and his father… well, he never knew him, so who cared? All he knew about his father was that he was Egyptian, and that his last name, Amen, had roots in ancient Egyptian tradition, specifically linked to the lineage of a historic and sacred name: 'Amenhotep,' which means 'Amun is satisfied.' This name had been carried by several important pharaohs of Egypt, including Amenhotep III, one of the most powerful and renowned.
Despite her profession, his mother wasn't one of those addicts who ignored their kids. She was incredible. She took care of her business while Adam was at school and was always there for him, both in the morning when he left and when he came back. Adam never knew what drove her to take up the oldest profession in the world, but he knew she did it to pay the bills, though sometimes it was tough.
Adam was six years old when his mother was killed. Since she was a prostitute, the police didn't pay much attention to the case; she was just another prostitute, probably killed by a client, they said. With no other family, he was placed into foster care, which turned out to be even worse than his previous life. He finally escaped that hell when he was eleven and started living on the streets. It wasn't easy, since the only skill he had at that time was drawing.
After a few weeks of sleeping in alleys and stealing food from vendors, he found himself out of cash and tried his luck as a pickpocket. Needless to say, he failed and thought he was done for. Instead, the guy he tried to rob just smiled and offered to teach him how to do it right.
The man's name was Jhon, or at least that's what he told Adam. Jhon was a con artist, one of the best in the city, and he took Adam under his wing, teaching him how to steal and scam. By the time Adam was fifteen, he was almost as good as Jhon. He could pickpocket without anyone noticing and could get in or out of any situation with his charm. A lot of people think pulling off a scam is hard, and depending on what you're doing, it can be, but the key thing is trust. After all, a scam is essentially a lie, and it takes trust to look someone in the eye and lie without giving anything away.
But you can't pull off a scam or even a simple theft with just trust. You need skill and one more thing... luck. And Adam had trust, skill, and more than his fair share of luck. Jhon's luck, though, eventually ran out during a scam, and he ended up in jail. Adam found himself alone again, but at least this time he had Jhon's apartment, some money, and the talent to grow his income, which he did through various white-collar crimes and scams.
Over time, his reputation grew to the point where people started hiring him to… acquire various items, mostly jewelry and paintings, and since he was young and very good at what he did, he was perfect for some specific jobs. It was an exciting life, adventurous, and it paid really well. But that's where Adam's story really began to change. He hadn't even turned 16 when he took a job that changed his life completely.
It seemed like a simple job: break into the University of Mississippi and steal an artifact that had been discovered during an archaeological excavation. Adam did a little digging and found out it was a statue, made of common black metal, though very old. It didn't seem to be made by anyone famous, nor did it come from an important point in history. It didn't seem to have belonged to anyone famous. It was just old, which might've had some value, but Adam didn't see enough to justify the high price they were paying them to steal it. But who was he to judge? A job was a job, right? Especially when he was being paid so much for something fairly simple.
Adam took on the job of stealing the artifact. All he needed was to get into the place, which wasn't the hardest thing in the world; a quick pick of the lock, and he already knew a hacker who could get into the university's system to let him in.
Once inside, he wasted no time, already knowing that the statue was being kept in one of the science labs for testing, so Adam scoped the place out. There was always a campus guard during the day, along with the person who had discovered the statue and some lab techs. There was no way he could steal it during the day, meaning he'd have to do it at night. Adam decided not to drag this out longer than necessary and came back that same night to check the place out. Luckily for him, it seemed no one expected anyone to want to steal the statue, since it was just sitting there in the lab, sealed in a glass case.
He probably could've taken it right then, but he wanted to observe the security patrol to know how much time he'd have to get in, unlock the container, grab the statue, and get out. There were two guards who patrolled the science wing, one watching the security monitors and the other making rounds. The one making rounds passed by the lab with the statue every half hour, which should've been plenty of time for Adam. He just needed to figure out how to avoid the cameras, which wasn't going to be easy given the lack of cover and hiding spots. The best way would probably be to hack the system and play a video feed, but that wasn't within his skill set, so the hacker would have to handle that.
…..
...
January 17, 2025
It took Adam and the hacker a few days to get everything ready, but finally, the time came. Getting into the university was pretty easy, as was reaching the science labs. Adam picked the lab door lock and opened the container. Picking the lock was simple, and soon he was standing over the glass case, looking at the statue.
It seemed to be a figure of some kind, maybe a person, but it was hard to tell much more than that. However, it was intricately carved, about 15 inches tall, and made of metal. Its eyes were made of what looked like dark red jewels, which was probably why their employer wanted it stolen. But for that to happen, Adam needed to get it out of the case, a task that turned out to be more difficult than he thought, since the container was sitting on a pressure pad, which was undoubtedly connected to an alarm system.
Usually, something like this is pretty easy to get around, like in the movie Indiana Jones, all you need to do is replace the item on the pressure pad with something of equal weight. The only problem was that Adam didn't know how much the statue weighed and, even if he did, he didn't have anything to replace it with.
His best hope was that the people working in the lab had their notes locked in a desk somewhere, which would hopefully give him an idea of what he needed. He searched six drawers without finding anything when his watch beeped, a sign that the guard would be back in the area in five minutes.
Cursing under his breath, he left the lab and ran down the hallway, slipping into one of the empty classrooms while he waited for the guard to pass by and took the time to think over his options. The first would be to leave and try again another night; the second would be to just grab the statue and make a run for it, though not very stealthily.
And there was a third option, a bit less risky… He could always guess how much the statue weighed and grab some random objects to put on the pedestal, and if that didn't work, just grab it and run. Nodding to himself, he peeked over the desk he was hiding behind just in time to see the guard walk past the door. Then he got up and spent the next few minutes grabbing some books, beakers, and other lab equipment before heading back to the lab with the statue.
After taking a deep breath, he decided to start with the books. They were pretty thick science books that, on their own, would hopefully be enough to counter the weight of the statue and its container. Even better would be if this were one of those pressure pads that weren't set to the exact weight of the statue. That way, any weight he replaced it with that was equal to or heavier than the statue would work. However, if it was set a different way, those books would trigger the alarm anyway.
He made the split-second decision to start with one book and, if needed, press it down to add some weight. With the first book in his right hand, he took the glass container with his left and started sliding it gently off the pad, while sliding the book into the empty space at the same time. His movements were painfully slow, until finally, he got it off the pad without triggering the alarm.
With the statue in hand, he could roughly calculate its weight and smiled as he dropped the book, letting out a sigh of relief that the alarm didn't go off. He placed the statue in the bag he'd brought with him and put back the other stuff he'd taken from the classroom, returning everything to its rightful place before heading for the exit.
He had barely made it out when the university alarms started blaring. With a chuckle, Adam sprinted down a nearby alley to where he had stashed another bag. He opened it and stripped off the black hoodie, ski mask, and gloves he had been wearing for the heist, swapping them for a Mississippi Braves t-shirt, a baseball cap, and a long black leather coat he had left there.
Freshly changed, he casually walked out of the alley and back onto the street as numerous police cars sped toward the university. Adam blended quietly back into the city.
…..
When he got back to his apartment, he pulled the statue out of the bag and stared at it, wondering what was so special about it besides its eyes.
Hours later, Adam stepped out of his apartment for some fresh air. He walked the empty streets of Jackson, his thoughts still on the statue and his life.
The cold bit at Adam's skin as he walked through the deserted streets of the city. The night wrapped everything in its dark cloak, and only the distant sound of a car broke the silence.
At fifteen, Adam had learned not to expect much from life, especially after becoming an orphan.That's why he made up his mind to seize what life hadn't offered him and stand out from the crowd. He didn't want to be just another nobody; he had high hopes for his future. His steps echoed on the wet pavement, and his breath formed clouds of vapor in the frigid air.
That night, however, destiny had an unexpected twist in store for him.
In a fateful accident, Adam's life came to an abrupt end.
It all happened in a flash: a car out of control, a blinding light, and then... nothing.
When he opened his eyes again, he was in an unfamiliar place. Instead, he found himself in a vast dark plain, with a gray mist floating around him, dense and oppressive. The ground was a mix of dirt and rough rocks, with no sign of vegetation or life.
In front of him stood a tall, hooded figure whose presence emanated an unsettling calm. The figure wore a black robe that extended to the ground, billowing slightly as if animated by a nonexistent wind. From the hood emerged a skeletal face, whose empty eye sockets seemed to absorb all light, creating an even deeper darkness around them. Its bones were whitish, gleaming with a macabre shine, and from its elongated fingers hung silver chains that tinkled softly.
"Welcome, mortal," said Death in a deep, resonant voice that seemed to vibrate in the very air. "You have died. But we are not here to talk about your final fate, but rather about a choice you have..."
Adam frowned, confused. 'Final fate? What choice could there be in death?'
"You can choose to follow your destiny, whether it be heaven or hell in this world, something you will eventually discover… Or you can choose to transmigrate your soul into a body in other world"
The constant questioning of why him, just why offer him such an opportunity when he wasn't anything special, it made no sense, but a part of him knew that those questions were irrelevant now. He was dead and he was being offered a second chance…
Adam remained silent, processing the information. He wasn't a saint, but neither was he a demon, at least that's what he liked to think.
The idea of facing an unknown judgment terrified him, especially because he had done several improper things, from lying to stealing... of course, never with malice only out of pure necessity, but that didn't change the fact that he had done all that. On the other hand, the opportunity to start anew in another world seemed intriguing...
"Err... Would I retain my memories if I choose to transmigrate?" Adam asked, trying to understand all the implications. After all, what was the point of a second chance if he wasn't himself anymore. To him, at this moment, this was the one and only important question.
But then he realized something very strange: despite how nervous and shocked he felt, he was acting with surprising calm throughout the situation. He had even quickly assessed the best available options without being affected by all his concerns and countless questions.
"Yes mortal, you would retain your memories," Death replied. "But I can't tell you which world it is or what kind of body you will find yourself in. It is something you will have to discover for yourself..."
"Additionally, you will not be able to reveal anything about our conversation, your previous life, or the transmigration process. To help you with this, you will gain an ability similar to what you know as 'Gamer's Mind', which will protect your mind allowing you to maintain total mental autonomy at all times, free from any external influence or intrusion, and will prevent you from revealing these secrets…"
"In fact, you are currently experiencing something similar to what it feels like to have this ability, as all the dead temporarily gain a similar ability upon dying, to process the entire situation until their final judgment."
Adam nodded slowly. Now it all made more sense.
Part of him was in chaos from all the current events, but another part seemed to be preventing that chaos from negatively affecting him... it was a strange feeling, to be in chaos and yet not be.
But Adam quickly stopped thinking about that to focus on the current situation and what he should do...
The idea of keeping his memories and permanently obtaining a special ability like 'Gamer's Mind' sounded tempting, and the uncertainty of heaven or hell was too terrifying for him. He understood that the ability being given to him had countless benefits, but also implied a way to ensure he couldn't mention/reveal anything.
Even so, he had already made a decision.
"I accept," Adam finally said.
Death simply extended its hand, and Adam took it. Everything went black…
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Well, I just had this idea of doing a fanfic about a SI on a DC atlantean since I never saw atlanteans being explored much before and I found it interesting. I also like the timeline of Young Justice so this followed the canonical YJ timeline but there will be a lot of changes due to the interference of the SI. Anyway, I hope you guys like it and the more feedback and support I get for this story the more motivated I will be to write.
Oh and if anyone has any suggestions or recommendations I am always happy to read them, I am open to all the comments and if there are things that you would like to see I might even use them if I feel they could fit in the development of the plot that I am already creating.