I thought life was hard, living from paycheck to paycheck in a society not so forgiving to poor people. But it turns out that was just the tutorial. The real challenge began when I opened my eyes in a world where everyone—everyone—had a superpower. It wasn't like those heroic fantasies I used to read; there were no capes or shining emblems. Here, power wasn't just a privilege—it was the currency, the law, and the only thing keeping you alive. I wasn't born into this place. I didn't get the advantage of growing up with powers like the rest of them. No, I landed here with nothing but the clothes on my back and the desperate need to survive.
The universe didn't give me a head start, but it did give me one thing: a power unlike any other. A cheat? A curse? I wasn't sure yet. All I knew was this—Jason Carter doesn't play by the rules. Not anymore. I came to know that everyone had a gene in them from their ancestors that let them have some kind of superpower which they called Aspects.
In this world, thanks to Aspects, humanity had reached the interstellar age and were thriving in it. Aliens were real from humanoid ones to non humanoids, ugly to the hot as hell types, evil and the good ones. Humanity had reached a technological might that was only seen in scify movies. Here, a newborn could be born with the power to warp reality or just the power to change their hair colors. The stronger the Aspect you are born with, the greater your chances of reaching the truly mythical levels! Yes, there were walking gods here, otherwise what do you call someone who can stop or even rewrite time?
"Fuck!" I cursed as I sat down on the damp alley's floor, trying to figure out just which omnipotent being I offended to be so royally fucked. I was in my old body with no identification on myself because I usually don't carry any and with no Aspect to save my sorry hide. If someone were to decide to just fuck me up I was cooked, no question about it.
"Please, please, anyone out there, give me something," I cried, no, I really cried. I wasn't some gung ho assassin or mercenary like most protagonists, I was just a fast food industry worker whose biggest feat in life was buying a used car from some shady guy in the net.
Just as I was wallowing in my self pity, an old man walked into the alley, looking at me from top to bottom before grinning. My heart turned cold as I could just imagine myself being his exclusive toy for sometime. He approached me, the same grin on his wizened face before squatting in front of me.
"It seems it worked. All those years of them rewriting time over and over again, making sure there is never fiction in all corners of the universe. Crippling my Aspect, making sure I never thought outside the box, too stupid to realize I could write my own fiction and have that power! Truly, my Fictional Mimicry Aspect is wasted to a stupid old man like me," the old man said, looking sad and incensed at the same time before his glazed eyes focused back at me.
"But you, I know I brought you from a universe filled with fiction. It appears it has no Aspect, a blessing. Young man, I want to give you my power, Fictional Mimicry, and with it do whatever it is you see fit," he said, looking deep into my eyes, searching right into my soul like it had all the answers.
"W...What's going on?" I managed to ask, trying to comprehend what was happening.
"I don't have much time, those turds will know I am using my power. I know I brought you here with all the basic knowledge you need to know about my universe. Take my Aspect as a form of compensation because I am sure you will use it much better than I will ever do," the old man said, hurriedly, before laying his left hand onto my head and then I felt something seep into my body, no, my cells!
"What's this? What's happening?" I tried to ask as I felt my consciousness slip.
"Live true, boy, and bring my Aspect to the level it was before. Live free and never fear consequences and remember to make the right choices. This is a dangerous universe and its waters run deeper than itself," the old man said just as my consciousness finally disappeared.