Prologue Pt. 2

Pain. One hell of a wakeup call, right? But, wherever I am, I feel no pain. Hell, not even heat from the fire. Where am I? The hospital? No it can't be. No beeping monitors or sickly white walls. In fact, I just can't see anything. No no no no I don't wanna be blind. Please, anybody help me...

*****

"He is awakened but he isn't in his right mind," Said a masculine voice, "He panics because of simple darkness. How is he supposed to be your heir? The strength of the summoning he had done was weak but his potential may even outstrip some of the elders…" A harrumph met this comment from another voice. Seemingly an unheard conversation passed between the two beings until they nodded and opened the portal to the room Daniel was housed in.

(1st person POV MC aka Daniel Hunter.)

Who are these people one looks like uncle Markus… Wait, am I dead? No surprise there, But damn it I wanted to finish that thing… wait, why can't I remember what i was doing. Why does my head hurt? The taller of the two people? Waved his hand and the pain went away. Along with this gesture the smaller grunted in what sounded like disapproval. "Who are you?"

"C'mon Daniel don't you remember me? Your old Uncle Markus! Now we can finally talk without the meddlesome elder gods getting in the way! And I hate to sound like a broken record like the novels you read, you are dead. But all is not lost my nephew, Me and my companion here would like to talk with you!" The smaller of the two had a imposing set of armor hidden by darkness. Six armed, I thought, definitely not human… He shrugged off his cloak to reveal a familiar-ish face. The Grayhawk's world's God of War, Hextor. I gaped at his visage like some kind of Hindu god, Athletic muscles of a hardened warrior, six arms holding various weapons, and finally a young visage many women would fall for. "Isn't he supposed to be ork-like ugly tusks, face and marred beyond hope of attractiveness?" That comment got a mean glare from the gray skinned humanoid but a swipe on the head from my Uncle-lookalike, "Don't insult my friend nephew, and apologize he helped me with this whole thing." A quick apology left my lips as I stared up at my uncle. Still portly but his sickly visage was replaced with wizened eyes and a subtle feeling of power in the gnarled stick he held. "Let's get out of this nasty little dimension, I hate the feeling of Earth's Limbo." As I was about to ask what he meant we disappeared from there and came to a carbon copy of the library i met my uncle at, minus the people but add books flying around all over the place.

"What.." My uncle had a Cheshire grin as he announced, "Welcome to my library Daniel, Let me reintroduce myself, I am Azuth, the High one, But I would like to keep the Uncle Markus moniker for my adoptive nephew." I almost fell flat on my face but the gray skinned wargod caught me. He looked at me and chuffed in amusement as I stuttered out incoherently. "You owe me for this High One, Getting a soul from under Beelz's nose will not give me creedence at the conference of gods."

My god-uncle hmphed in annoyance, "That lesser being will see it my way, have no doubts my friend. Now, Daniel, You died during the summoning of your first familiar so I stepped in with my compatriot here to take you to a world away from the awakening your old home is having. Yes, that kind, magic, new races, the emergence of gods and eldritch beings. Chaos would rule and many would die. Atleast, if Yaweh had it his way, you would be burning for the stunt we pulled but, with a little help, we snagged you from the jaws of Lucifer and his cronies to send you far far away. And no, not Star Wars Nephew, The Force said no… grumpy old thing even the elder gods were nicer in Lovecraft's universe. I digress, we will send you off to a favorite of yours, Marvel." He waited for my shocked reply only to find me fainted on the floor of the library. Once again the gray skinned man huffed in annoyance and looked at my form, "He can't handle the training nor the burden we will put on him. He will kill him with his training." My uncle shrugged and said no more, waiting for me to wake up.

I awoke with a start and looked around only to find my uncle sipping on, what I assume was, tea and the wargod downing a barrel of alcohol. "CAN I REALLY GO TO THE MARVEL-VERSE!?" I was met with a telekinetic slap to the back of my head and forced to sit in the dining chair in front of me. "Yes Nephew, you will. But not without training. You loved history, so your tutors will be from all walks of life during this period." I waited for him to elaborate, but was met by a gesture towards the Six armed man. "You will be taught to fight by the greatest roman general, Gaius Julius Caesar, the Roman Emperor. And he will teach you about War, politics, and leadership. You will also be taught many martial arts besides Roman Boxing, mosty jiu jitsu and judo. These will be taught by Bruce Lee. You will need to be taught philosophy and marksmanship by a shade of Chiron, the Teacher of Heroes. You will be sent into the universe 5 years before the start of Ironman." The Gray Warrior went silent and gestured for Uncle Markus to pick up the pace. "My Nephew, these years will be trying and I hope as your guardian you can get through. You will spend your days here until your twentieth birthday, you are 18 now so these next two years will be brutal. Caesar will break you down and build you into a general. Bruce will lead you onto the martial path, and Chiron will make you want to jump into the River Styx with his intellectual conundrums. Be strong for me and maybe one day you can visit me and the old fogeys of this universe." I sat in contemplative silence and the wargod got up and left. My uncle smiled a sad smile and patted my shoulder as he left. "You will survive, you must for me, my old heart won't take it if you don't. I will summon your teachers."

And like that I was alone in the library. The smell of parchment and ink took me to fond memories. Handwritten letters to my pen pal, who still never met or really knew. Staying up to the crack of dawn playing Dungeons and Dragons with My uncle. And my solace in books and literature to keep myself company. The life I led before I met my uncle was one of ambivalence, struggle, and borderline poverty and abuse. My first memory is of a white room in a hospital waking up from a coma. My birth parents were taking me back from baseball practice in my middle school team, taking me home after losing the playoff game. Needless to say I was devastated. I cried the whole way home, they assured me about next year and as we went across an intersection a truck or car hit us and sent us zooming off the road and slammed us into a tree. I woke up 3 years later in the local hospital, I was 14 then.

For a year I was in the system being passed home to home, like a game of hot potato, I shut myself into the bathroom from my new adoptive dad, crying from the wound on my head. He saw that I had told the police of him beating me and went to finish the job but my hard head stopped the crobar from smashing my skull in. He screamed and for the 10 minutes of my hiding I was losing consciousness holding my head from the concussion I heard the police yelling, telling him to put down the weapon. I heard him cackle like the demon he was and ran at the cops only to be shot dead on the spot. With his dying breath he yelled, "Wherever you go kid, I WILL find you!" And like that the year of torture i endured was over and I collapsed. I woke up the next day with stitches in my head and the bruises wrapped and treated. I didn't talk much other than to the police and doctors. And for my entertainment i got to go to the library across the road to entertain myself and eventually met Markus there. And the rest is history as they say.