Chaotic Bar Fight, Rebirth

For Norvin, time seemed to slow to a crawl inside the bar as he tumbled through the air. Everything, except his thoughts, came to a standstill when his destructive flight path finally ended by making contact with the headless armor at the very back of the loft.

'Am I gonna die?'

Norvin's consciousness flickered, he was severely injured after heroically shielding Huey from Lady Gath's blow. In addition to his broken arms and ribs, he had vomited blood while airborne because his lungs had been punctured by his broken ribs. Blood was also seeping from his nose and eyes at this point. He was unable to breathe.

Many other bones of his had been pulverized when he smashed through several game and arcade cabinets too.

Norvin wanted to scream out loud but nothing would come out. The only thing that came out was more blood. 

The Oni-masked helmet, which just narrowly avoided Lady Gath's grasp, had now caught up with Norvin. It arrived right as Norvin crashed into the suit of armor resting near the back of the gaming loft.

When Norvin was blasted away, time had only seemed to slow down, now that he had made contact with the armor, it was as if time had really come to a near stop. Instead of being mangled further from the impact, he had been instantly shielded instead; the armor he crashed into had enveloped him with a nearly translucent, golden energy before the center piece of the suit broke the brick wall behind it.

As it protected Norvin, the armor gently counteracted his inertia and dispersed the force of the impact to prevent additional injury.

He had been spared, not splattered! At that moment, the scattered fragments of armor began to levitate and spin above him. 

An overwhelming presence descended on him and a voice entered his mind.

'100% Photographic memory. 100% compatible with 4th Record's current Sub Body. Norvin Ray Veldman. Curator Candidate….detecting genes …55% Atlas genes detected…PASS. PERFECT MATCH! 50% past needed threshold…overwriting non Atlas genes…Linking record information library….Infusing Mana, unlocking latent potential, unlocking main class…Psychic...Success! Regenerating Body. Updating 4th Curators record….…Scanning past desires and thoughts…..initiate after record reconfiguration…....Stand by for 3 seconds Norvin…Prepare to bond with sub body #106 and generate Curator Armor.'

'I'm hearing voices...this hurts like hell! Wait… Who are you, voice in my head?.....WAIT, WHAT!? BOND? AAAGGHHHH!'

'AAAUUUGGGGHHHHH...aaaaahhhhh…hhhhmmmmm' His inner scream turned into a moan.

Maybe it was Norvin's perception that had been altered but the next three seconds that passed by as his body was first healed, then massively modified, re-worked, upgraded and improved was more excruciating than he could have ever imagined and it felt more like thirty years than three seconds.

As the process started, his head was searing with pain especially badly! His thoughts turned to memories of tv shows and other things to distract him. He watched and re-read all the media he had seen before in his life several times.

The pain was worth it in the end however, for the pure ecstacy that Norvin felt next was unlike anything he had ever experienced before! He thought of several of his conversations about the hero holodex he had with Huey involuntarily, then several power fantasies where he had made himself custom powers flashed by as well. It was a weird déjà vu like feeling. Norvin wasn't quite sure why his thoughts had drifted there.

Norvin had now been fully healed and he felt himself well up with what he could only describe as energy!

He felt a strength beyond anything he had ever imagined possible. The most significant change, though, was the sharpening of his thoughts and the heightened state of alertness paired with a profound calmness. His cognitive processing speed had also reached an astonishing level!

The only remaining discomfort he experienced was on his wrist for a brief second, where his prop watch, the 'hero holodex' was. It burned like hell for an instant before feeling normal and once again amazing as the rest of his body was.

'Curator armor generated.'

Moments earlier, Norvin had been laying, or slightly floating, if you count the slim layer of golden energy between the floor and his body, in a pile of broken plaster and drywall, not to mention some of the bricks from the wall that was behind the armor in the loft.

The missing bricks left a three foot hole in the wall, which let moonlight cast a light on his body laying there.

The armor hovering above him had started shining even brighter and more solidly as he was first healed then transfigured. The energy's golden glow mixing into the moonlight being cast onto Norvin looked quite epic.

The armor pieces and the sword had moved into their correct order, overlapping the shape of Norvin's body for a few moments before phasing into him. Their glow intensified, proceeding to turn into pure light, the process was similar to what happened to Makoto when the helmet left him, but in reverse. However, the aura they had emitting was much more intense!

These beautiful golden lights had submerged themselves further under Norvin's skin; they gathered and condensed into a small golden ball of light and came to rest at the center of his forehead.

At around the same time as the memories of the holodex went through his mind, the ball had moved and started ricocheting around his body from his forehead and then settled at his left wrist, exactly where the watch was. It engulfed the watch and glowed so intensely that looking at it would have burned out a normal persons eyes, as if they had been trying to stare at the sun!

The voice didn't answer the questions Norvin had asked it in his head before. It had merely notified him when the process was done.

Norvin struggled to open his newly healed eyes and squinted a few times as his perception of passing time came back into sequence with the rest of the world. He pushed himself off the floor and stood with ease. His body had always possessed an freakish strength, but now he felt agile, swift, and doubly powerful, brimming with vitality!

His vision started to become clear but was still obstructed from the dust cloud he had created. To his surprise he could see the outlines of everyone left alive downstairs!

'This is the 'Cosmic Catalogue' ability…wait...how do I know that?!'

It seemed as though he possessed a biological heads-up display, which labeled his current thoughts: the remaining minions of Lady Gath, Gath herself, a peculiar small imp-like creature concealed behind the bar, and the silhouettes of three humans.

He could discern their identities. Precisely what they were... descriptions, information, statistics, and powers were accessible for each target within his mind's eye.

Norvin now knew instinctively how to focus on different items and wasn't overwhelmed by all the data at all!

Earlier, during the painful transformation of his body, his perception had slowed down to a near standstill. When time appeared to halt for him, he had re-watched episodes of various anime, cartoons, and shows like Ultraman and Kamen Rider, recalling them in flawless 4k detail. During this period of stasis, the only other activity he could engage in was observing his body and state of being. He was now already familiar with his newfound abilities, which were the exact power fantasies he had unconsciously imagined before.

Norvin was filled with excitement, ready to return and assist his friends downstairs. However, he halted abruptly as two unfamiliar and intense new feelings suddenly washed over him, nearly overwhelmed him.

The first was as if he had just developed a 'tangible' sixth sense. His mind felt…amazing. There was no other way to put it. It now felt as though he could move mountains with just a thought!

The next was much stranger, Norvin felt a second consciousness slowly start to awaken…in his left arm? It was as if it had become alive and it slowly settled at his wrist before disappearing.

Norvin just stood there, feeling all the new things there were to feel, getting excited about what he guessed was happening to him. What he had dreamed about for years while hating normal life was actually coming true.

He also felt extremely angry, towards the strangers that had caused all the chaos, his friends getting hurt and all the people he had just witnessed die, especially Cassie and Greg.

He felt nervous and scared too, the initial adrenaline had worn off after he had been put back together. The only thing stopping him from being overwhelmed at this point was his now-superhuman state of being, the enhanced mental prowess, and the calm that came with it.

Norvin glanced at the device his wrist, feeling that peculiar sensation return for the second time.

'Pick a form quick, kid. That giant woman down there is going to be up here very soon.'

A different voice sounded in Norvin's head and at the same time it was speaking, his left wrist tingled, right under where the hero holodex was.

If anyone else were in Norvin's place they would have panicked, lost their cool, shut down or fled.

Not Norvin. Not now. He had dreamt of this moment since as long as he could remember. The version of how things would go down in his head had been heavily romanticized though, not many people would have stayed sane facing the sudden carnage and violence that Norvin had faced and seen to reach this point.

His newly reformed mind and the energy he could feel circulating in his body had also kept him calm enough to quickly conclude that the voice in his head was the fourth record's sub body, whatever that meant, speaking to him right now.

'Record, as in Akashic Record??' 

'That's right, you guessed it Vin, I'm the one hundred-sixth sub body that the main record mentioned earlier to you and I guess were roommates now… NOW CHOOSE A FORM!...Yes, that means exactly what you think it does kid.'

Norvin tilted his head slightly and one side of his mouth curled up.

The Holodex's display lit up as he lifted his left arm.

Norvin rotated the dial on the watch's circular face several times. The face, underlying body, and surrounding ring were constructed to resemble a planetary gear system. As he turned the outer ring, it moved around the inner face, and at a specific point in the rotation, a new 'hero' or 'suit' would emerge.

The holographic display was significantly brighter and clearer than his previous creation. A real hologram. Moreover, the device's body was now crafted from a bright white alloy, replacing the original black plastic casing.

Another new feature was that with each turn, a golden, 3D holographic description of every hero that passed by would appear in front of Norvin's eyes. This was definitely not a feature in the previous version.

'HURRY!'

As Norvin played with the device, a sudden, impossibly strong warning bell went off in his head!

Moments later, another part of the banister gave way as Lady Gath crashed through it, coming to a halt atop the six-player Ninja Turtles arcade machine, which collapsed under the impact. That particular unit had somehow survived Norvin's earlier flight.

She looked around for a few seconds, trying to catch a glimpse of the helmet that had flown away from her moments earlier. 

"Where is it?" Gath called out to Norvin in a cold tone, maintaining her distance. She was aware of the force of her strike on the Grade E. She had felt his bones fracturing and heard his cries of pain as he was blasted away by her attack earlier. Yet now, he seemed to possess an energy level that bordered between a strong D and a weak C Grade Super.

So she was weary and stood her ground for a few moments while she mulled it over.

This was the chance Norvin needed. He turned the holodex a few more times while locking gazes with Lady Gath. He stole a quick glance down at the hero it was resting on now before grinning.

'OG huh?' Norvin thought to himself as he regarded Lady Gath.

"I didn't even get a chance to play that Turtles booth yet...you bitch."

 Norvin tilted his head and grinned even wider after saying this.

He moved his thumb down slightly from the rotating rim of the holodex, it passed through the hologram of the hero currently selected and pressed down on the face in one smooth motion, activating the device.

"Henshin!"