CH-1: New Beginnings [1]

Darkness.

Endless absolute infinite darkness.

That's what I'm staring into, if anybody envisioned this world of no light, I'm sure they would presume it as cold and cramped but to be frank this is on the contrary, I feel warm and cozy like a blanket of morning sunshine wrapped around my body.

I don't remember for how long I've been gazing at this void, it could have been eons or just a few hours, light is not a factor here and it's messing with my perception of time.

During this period of floating around in this emptiness the only company I had were my thoughts, the occasional whimpers of muffled voices and the ever frozen dark matter.

If people really think about it, nobody is afraid of being alone in the darkness, they are afraid of 'not' being alone in the darkness.

I'm sure the thoughts of people with Nihiliphobia would go insane if they were in my place, to be stuck in this nothingness will be their worst nightmare.

Even I might have gone crazy if not for the voices and my mind repeating my memories like a marathon series.

The last thing I remember before I ended up in this, whatever exactly this is. I was driving back home after my super boring day at the college.

I remember turning my car at the corner of my street, I knew that road a bit too well, I have been in that place for a quite some time, two years to be exact and I'm fairly certain about its traffic.

It was a peaceful and quiet neighborhood and I'm damn sure a truck shouldn't be in that premise, it just doesn't have any sort of relevance but still a big ass truck came out of nowhere and smashed into my car.

No calling it big is off putting that monster, it was gigantic and looked like something out of this world, no idea who and why someone manufactured that beast but fuck it, anyway, moving on.

The car was thrown away from the road, where it flipped twice before it came to halt. Once I came out of the initial shock from the impact, I found myself hanging upside down with blood smeared over my face.

I didn't know what happened after that, I was blanked out, then I was here but if I'm right about the things I decoded from the muffled voices, yes I didn't have anything better to do and decided to debrief the contents, which leads me to believe I'm in a hospital.

A coma was one of the many things I was expecting my case to be.

I even have plans to write a book called 'How I stared into literal nothingness for a eon' if I ever get out of this mess.

Like somebody reading my mind, for the first time since I came here, I heard a clear noise.

It was the sound of a snap of fingers which was followed by the illumination of the black void. A wave of yellow lustre filled the emptiness and I felt my existence getting pulled out of this darkness.

My eyes darted open making me realize that I was not dead and still alive, which kinda meant the same thing.

Slowly my mind started to clear up, all those thoughts I had in the void became a nightmare at the back of my head and when all the clarity hit and the senses settled in, I got control over my body but it was weird, I felt totally different, so weak with an unnatural amount of oddness.

'Oh god.'

I blinked gazing at the unfamiliar ceiling, tilting my head with a bit of a struggle, I looked down at the array of tubes inserted into my nostrils and taped to my mouth, I wasn't able to look at anything other than that as my neck painfully gave out.

I stretched my arm bearing the pain to find the emergency button but it was deemed unnecessary as I heard a door open.

A lady in a standard nurse uniform entered the room. I waited with hope in my heart that she would take a look at me but instead she was going around the room taking notes from the monitors connected to the multitude of wires attached to my body.

I had enough of waiting and tried to call her, a word was what I attempted to say, however Instead what came out of my mouth was similar to a dry cough, it felt as if my tongue and throat was being scraped hard by a sharp claw.

The nurse flinched at the sudden sound but the next moment she noticed I was conscious. Her first reaction was to open her eyes wide and express her surprise but she instantly collected herself and rushed towards the bed.

"Edward, can you hear me?"

'What?'

I blinked hearing the name she mentioned, either she must have it wrong, confusing me with another guy or I misheard what she said.. or I got a hearing problem. Just great.

Overlooking the wrong name I tried to answer her but once again what came out of my mouth was not words but a streak of coughs.

"Don't strain!" She held her hands in front with a gesture to stop. "If you can hear me, blink once for yes and twice for no."

I slowly blinked once.

"Ok, I'm gonna repeat this to confirm, can you hear me?"

I blinked once more, she waited till I locked my eyes with hers and took a breath.

"Edward, I'm going to step out for a moment and call the Doctor, is it ok?"

I patiently blinked one more time without bothering about the name but this is the second time she said it wrong and for some reason that is not setting well with me.

As soon as she saw my answer she rushed out of the room, I tried to sigh but wasn't able to because of the multiple tubes in my nose, unable to do anything, I did what I could and laid there without thinking much.

A moment later I felt my eyelids getting heavy and a rush of drowsiness wash over me, I closed my eyes as I fell into the land of dreams.

…..

-General Pov-

While his body laid peacefully in the quiet room surrounded by a doctor and a bunch of nurses, his mind wandered in a dreamscape.

His astral form or what he thought his astral form was standing in a deserted theater, he looked around him and the whole world outside a door was curved like their very existence is collapsing on itself.

"What kinda inception shit is this?" He mumbled glancing at the building and skyscrapers hovering upside down.

"Daddy!" He flinched in surprise at the squeal of a child and turned around to see a kid run past him to the arms of a man.

'John.'

Something whispered inside his mind as he looked at the man, his gaze narrowed wondering how he knew that man's name, when he had never seen or met him in his life.

John stood up with the kid in his right arm while a silhouette of a woman materialized beside him out of thin air. He wrapped his other arm around the woman's waist and pulled her into a kiss.

'Martha.'

"What the fuck?" He cursed out loud at the mention of another name.

The family of three didn't seem to notice his lash out as they spoke with each other while he tried to understand what's happening in this dream.

"Come on, it's starting." John pointed towards a door and rushed the other two people to enter.

He wondered what he should do as he watched the people walk into the theater, in the end he decided to follow them.

As he walked into the building, he spotted the inside of the structure was actually very small and compact, totally different from the impression the majestic wooden door at the entrance gave and unlike the old abandoned vibe it had on the outside, the insides of the theater was brand new.

It housed 2 rows and 3 columns, consisting a total of 6 seats. The family had taken over the front row and had their heads locked towards the mini screen in front.

He slowly made his way to the row behind without bothering them and took a seat in the middle.

A moment later he sat down and made himself comfortable, a flash of light came from behind, enlightening the screen.

10..

9..

8..

'What's with the weird ass countdown?'' He asked no one in particular.

It was like the old movies with the reverse countdown going from 10 to 1.

2..

1..

Let's start.

-[One hour later]-

'Damn.' He thought as the screen went blank, his eyes looming over the people before him.

The movie was a documentary about the family sitting in the front row, it started from the kid's point of view, whose name he learned as Edward.

He found it weird and slightly concerning as the nurse called him using the same name as the kid but he shooed away those thoughts and focused on the synopsis of the film.

Edward was a boy between the age of 9 to 10 studying at an elementary school.

The aspect of the movie started with a black haired guy and a brown haired woman arguing with each other while Edward took a peek at their verbal conflict through the slit of a closed door.

The story progressed to the next scene, where Edward could be seen playing with a kid at a park and his father stomped his way to him and slapped him right across the face twice before dragging the kid's wailing figure back home.

The shot after that showed the father and son in a locked room, the older man had a cigarette in his mouth, he looked down at the shivering figure of the little guy and pressed the smoking end at the kid's thighs.

Edward screamed in pain with tears flooding out of his eyes as the hot bud burned his skin, his father smacked his cheeks once again, in an effort to stop his shouts of agony but it didn't help Edward, he cried and cried till he fell unconscious.

His mother barged into the room and crawled towards the little guy and embraced him into her arms.

"I'm sorry Eddy." She whispered into his ear as a trail of tears left her eyes.

The climax came when the family was inside a car, the man was driving, the woman in the seat next to him and Edward was at the back trying to be as quiet as possible as to not give his father a reason to lash out.

"Stop crying you bitch!" The man shouted.

The woman turned away, wiped her tears and turned to the back seat, she gave out a hearty smile to the kid and whispered. "I'm sorry Eddy."

Before anybody in the vehicle could understand why she said those words, she launched herself towards the steering and turned the car into the opposite lane, the man yelled and punched her in the face but she didn't let go of the control.

Edward screamed as he saw the car closing to a truck, his fear took over him as his mind gave out but suddenly his eyes went totally black and a gooey substance oozed out of his body in a microsecond and enveloped him.

The movies came to an end as Eddy laid on the ground next to the car upside down.

"What the hell did I watch?" He asked.

"A life story." An aged voice muttered behind him.

"Woah!" He was startled by the sudden appearance and flinched back, his seat didn't take an effort to support his back and he fell on the floor.

"Argh." He grunted in pain and slowly sat on the floor, he opened his eyes to look at the oldie but they went wide in shock as he glanced at his surroundings changed in a blink. He stood up in panic and gazed at the room painted with yellow clouds.

"You should have seen your face." His head darted around the room to the old man sitting on a chair.

The Gramps wore a green jacket, a sharp yellow shirt on the inside, brown pants and finally a black shade to match them all, he had style, that's for sure.

"If you are done being amazed by my attire, shall we talk?" The old man asked almost like reading his mind.

"S-Sure." He nodded uncertainly.

"First order of business, young man, you are dead." The old guy dropped a bomb as soon as the talk began.

'Kinda expected.' He mumbled internally.

For a brief moment, they both shared a moment of silent companionship before the young soul decided to break it.

"So are you like God?" He asked pointing at the unknown entity in the form of an old man. He had thought about several other possibilities but this one had the higher chance than most.

"Kinda." The entity said taking off its glass, revealing a face that left the young soul stunned for a second.

"S-Stan Lee?" His voice broke at the end in awe and shock.

'Always thought it was Morgan Freeman but it turns out to be Stan Lee.' He yelled inside his mind.

"Let's stop at this, I don't want to have that nonsensical conversation again." Stan Lee flicked his fingers and a chair made out of cloud popped up from the floor, he took a seat and looked at the soul.

"What do you mean by again?" He inquired curiously.

"This might be the last time we see each other, finish your end of the deal." The old man vanished from the room with that, leaving the soul alone in a void once again.

"Wait, what deal?!" He shouted out loud but was met with silence as an answer.

He looked above and noticed the room was breaking into scaretted particle of golden dust, he laid down at the floor and stared at the void with deep thoughts about the Identity of the entity portraying as Stan Lee.

"You saw that didn't you?" A voice came from the clouds but this one had an innocent childish tone in it.

His eyes moved towards the corner, where a silhouette of a boy formed from the mist stood, the young soul knew that kid as soon as he saw his face.

"Edward?"

"Tell me, you saw my memories right?" Edward asked with a smile on his face.

"Yeah I did, they were memories huh." He nodded, finding it suitable for an explanation.

"Grandpa did what he promised, Haha." The kid chuckled happily at his answer.

"I understand everything that's happening but I can't process it, I know I should be panicking like there is no tomorrow but here I am, calm as I can ever be." The soul remarked about the situation.

Edward stopped laughing and walked over, he sat next to the soul and leaned against his shoulder.

"It's the charm of this place, that's just how it works." Edward shrugged.

"So what now? What's gonna happen to me?" The soul asked with a hint of fear hidden behind his formless eyes.

"When all these shatters." The kid said pointing at the remains of the room crumbling into the void. "You will wake up in my body."

"And live your life?" He questioned.

"Yep, goodbye then." Edward waved his hands in excitement as the room finally broke down and threw him out.

In a blink, his consciousness was back at the hospital, slowly opening his eyes once again, tilting his head he looked down and found the tubes missing.

He let out a sigh of relief and laid back in comfort but suddenly a train of memories crushed him.

He groaned in discomfort as 10 years of events, he didn't live etched into his mind, every single moment of it felt vivid and fresh in his head.

At the end of the stream of memories, he learned his full name and that piece of information made him squint his eyes and caused him to think about a certain fictional character sharing the same name with him.

'Edward Brock.'

'Oh shit.'

-[Few Days Later]-

Okay then, let's start counting how fucked up I am, shall we.

For starters, I'm in a Marvel universe and I have a varied scale of mixed feelings about this.

Speaking as a fan of comics and video games, I could have ended up in universes far more dangerous than this but make no mistake, I'm not saying it's easy either, in my view Marvel is fairly dangerous and its threat level varies with the different universes it hosts.

If I have to measure this in a level of difficulty, I would say it's hard but still I can't exactly lock it as I don't know which universe I have ended up in.

I hope it's not 616 or zombies. God knows how fucked the main branch timeline is.

The Zombies are straight up nightmare, the same could be said for the werewolves one, the dark universe and much more.

Getting my head around the whole transmigration was the hard part, it took me an entire day to fully come to terms with what happened. Everytime the doctor or a nurse came in during that, I pretended to be lost in my thoughts, they bought it or didn't bother and left me alone.

I found it surprising that there was not a scratch on Edward's body, the doctor said I was extremely lucky to have survived that accident and came out without a bruise, well except for a concussion on the back of my head.

Speaking of accidents, I found Edward's parents didn't survive it, not a big surprise considering they took the truck head straight.

I don't really feel anything for them, I'm not sad or happy about it, ok maybe I'm a bit relieved about his father's death but that's all.

I checked my memories or rather Edward's to figure out what kinda life and world he was living in. It was tough luck.

He was a 9 year old kid, abused by his dad, his memories were mostly filled on incidents with his family members and some school stuff, not many outside world experiences, not even a carnival, amusement park or anything of that sort. I think the closest thing to those would be playing in a park.

With his memories I learned about Edward's father.

Jack Brock.

Ed didn't really remember anything good about him, most of them were his father's torturing the poor kid or cursing him, the number of times Jack tried to drown Edward in the bathtub were higher than a single digit and apparently he was a scientist or should I say mad scientist with everything he did to his kid.

Edward's mother, Martha Parker, her identity came as a shock to me, she was sister to Ben and Richard Parker, who is uncle and father to Peter Parker respectively.

I don't know a single universe where Edward Brock and Peter Parker were cousins, much less Venom and Spiderman being close.

So on the scale of fucked up meter I think I'm still mid but why do I feel like I forgot something.

[...Hungry… Food.]

Oh yeah, the demonic cacophony that comes out once in a while.

I'm pretty convinced that's not my stomach going sentient and I don't really think that's my conscience either. If I ever gave a voice to my conscience, I would make it Tintin, definitely not this moronic Joker.

Looking over these things I do feel weird about this situation as a whole, if it was the 'me' before, I would have gone absolute nuts over the fact I'm in someone's body, I'm hearing beastly voices and I would have absolutely fallen into an existential crisis.

I did wonder how the hell this happened. How did I end up in this body? If the Marvel universe was real and my world was one where they just existed as comic book characters, did that mean all those Celestials and Cosmic entities were real?

Did one of them do this to me? Was it Stan-Lee who put me in Edward's body just to see what would happen? like the Gwenpool scenario or is it a part of the deal he mentioned, I got no idea about that, but what matters is I'm here now and I have to survive.

"Eddy?"

I snapped out of the trance and shifted my eyes to the woman sitting next to me.

Her pale long face had a bitter smile over it, short black hair and eyes matched each other perfectly, she wore a red shirt with a brown sweater over it and she looked awfully young for someone in their early 30s.

She pressed her hand gently over my chest and patted me slowly while leaning forward. I could clearly see the concern, care and worry she had for me through her eyes.

"Aunt May?" I called her unconsciously, she twirled her lips up for a moment and held it for a second before breaking it with a sigh.

"How are you feeling?"

I took a breath and looked away. She might have meant that question rhetorically but with my situation, I take it in a literal sense.

I have complicated emotions about this, I'm happy I didn't die, I'm worried about my future here and I'm afraid about the dangers this world poses.

I turned back and stared at her face, if I have to truthfully answer that question, I would say.

"I don't know."