In an ethereal wormhole in space that connected all of existence, Romulus's mind, body, and essence were transferred through it like a familiar guest returning to his natural habitat. His mind churned, and it was this churning that made him realize that he had a mind!
"It was so stuffy before!" He said to himself as it felt like thousands of impossibly tight shackles had been released from him. Previously, Romulus couldn't really think for himself, not until his most recent mission, that was.
Something had changed within him in that world filled to the brim with extremely large bubbles and giant sea creatures who lived in those bubbles. It was unknown what exactly had changed in him or even what caused it, but the change happened nonetheless. Moreover, it was because of this change that Romulus could… feel. For the first time in his life, he could feel things…
While being zorped through the infinite void, he got emotional. "I can actually feel," he muttered. "I can think, I can move, I can even see… Wait, why can't I see??"
Suddenly, Romulus opened his eyes but was quickly thrown into dismay when he figured out that he couldn't see anything! Was he given the ability to do everything but see!? Was fate so cruel that it would give him everything he didn't even know he wanted but not give him the capacity for vision!?
"Well, I guess I will take what I can get—" Before Romulus's reluctance about the situation could kick in, a sudden flash of bright golden light overwhelmed his vision. His consciousness was then sent through a spiraling array of colors!
When his mind found itself back to him, he realized that he could now…
"See! I can see," he exclaimed. However, his expression quickly contorted as confusion welled up within him. "The question is: what exactly am I seeing…?"
In every direction around him, there was darkness. It was only darkness, similar to how he used to view the world, but not yet at the same level of oblivion. It was, however, just enough for his PTSD to kick in. His eyes glossed over, his chest tightened, and his vision started to blur. But before it could reach a point of no return, the darkness suddenly had a large beam of light blast through, shedding upon him an entirely new perspective. Yet, before Romulus could understand what he was looking at, his vision once again shifted, but this time in a linear direction. Specifically, it was the down direction…
"Wha—"
Clang! Clang!
The distinct sound of metal hitting pavement rattled out as a trashcan in a backward alleyway was knocked onto its side. From within that trashcan popped out a scrawny young man around 17 or 18 years old. He had long, raven-black hair, thin sword-like eyebrows, pink lips, and a pair of eyes that embodied the concept of ascendance. They shone and glowed with a level of brilliance that easily made them his most distinctive trait, even overpowering the rest of his objectively handsome appearance. Yet, even though he was handsome, there was a profuse amount of grime and dirt covering his face and body, obscuring most of his facial features.
Bang, whack, pow!
His roll out of the trashcan was rather dramatic as he tumbled, stumbled, and fumbled until eventually whacking his head against a brick wall on the other side of the alleyway. After regaining some of his bearings, the first thing Romulus realized was that he felt pain. The second thing was that some of his pain felt like it hadn't come from his gallant exit from the trashcan.
"It feels like I was tossed around and beaten a good bit before making it into that unusually shaped metallic object," he said, his eyes suddenly widening in surprise. "Wait, I can actually speak!? I can talk! Look at this! Blah, Blah, Blah," he opened and closed his mouth in a funny way as he jammed his… fingers all the way in there!? "Hold up!" he shouted, barely containing his excitement. "I have fingers!? And a hand!? And this world… It's so dreary, but in a beautiful kind of way…!"
Romulus was overwhelmed by one thing after the next, ultimately focusing his attention on the place he found himself in. There were two long and high brick walls, both adorned with several small windows. They stood up at around the height of a three-story building, had cracks in between the individual bricks, and stretched in two different directions for a few dozen feet. The night hung low, blessing the world with an eerie moonlit glow, some of which seeped into this abandoned alleyway. Outside this alleyway, however, was a sight that could only be described as a dream for Romulus.
"There are people! There are actually people," he exclaimed, his transcendent eyes shining like never before. "I don't feel the instinctual urge to run them over, and I also don't feel like reversing to run them over and finish the job! Th-This," his voice trembled in excitement. "I can't believe this is my new reality! Have I actually been sent to a faraway land by a truck that looked just like me!? Have I actually been Truck-kunned—!?"
"Screech!!!"
While Romulus was jumping up in joy, a spine-tingling screech echoed through the alleyway. Then, without fair warning, the 'human' he had gotten excited about opened its mouth unnaturally wide and dashed at him in a creepy wobbling fashion. It leaped at him, baring multiple rows of fangs, its beady eyes glowing as red as blood!
"Wha!?" Romulus was forced out of his euphoric stupor as he just narrowly jumped out of the way of the terrifying mouth of chompers. In his attempt to dodge, he tripped on a pebble and tumbled, falling into several trash cans that were missing all of their contents. Or, rather, all of those contents had already been cleaned out by the creatures termed the 'Night Howlers,' who mechanically roamed the streets of 'Ghost Town.'