Chapter 1: A New World

"Move! Dumbass!"

The first thing he heard was a command and a curse, raising his gaze he saw the source of the annoying words.

A young man, dressed casually with jeans, a bomber jacket layered atop a sweater. He had dark skin and sported a bald hair style, not bold, bald, the man had a clean shaven head that seemed to shine as if polished with wax.

He was glaring, looking down at the young man dressed in an odd way.

James Barthomeloi, that is the name of the oddly dressed gentleman.

Unlike the dark skinned man, no, unlike everyone else who dressed in a modern style reminiscent of the early 2000's, James was dressed as if he came out of a Sherlock Holmes film.

Although trench coats were still in fashion, what set James apart from the rest were the clothes he wore underneath.

Polished black dress shoes, slacks, a gaudy white dress shirt under a black vest, a crimson sash decorated with gold pins was layered over his vest. If that wasn't enough he also wore black leather gloves and a stylish black ascot tie wrapped around his neck.

All he lacked was a cane and he would truly look like a victorian era gentleman.

Unfortunately, James was not in an era where having a gentlemanly bearing and appearance would do him any good.

In fact, his appearance only served to catch unwanted attention.

It also didn't help that the young man had a distant, almost blank look on his face.

Despite being in the center of the big apple, a city known throughout the world, the crime rate here was as high as the skyscrapers that littered the landscape.

"Got a problem bud?"

As if on que, a group of men, dark skinned, light skinned, medium skinned… It was a group of young men who radiated desire. Their ill intentions were evident but few cared, none even bothered to walk up to the oddly dressed young man to warn him or help him out.

In fact, there were some who stood aside, taking out their phones and recording the whole thing.

The group of young men then surrounded the unlucky James, but at that moment-

"I see~"

A playful voice resounded, James had finally spoken but his expression and words did not carry the look of a man being ganged up on. Instead, he had the look of a child who just found a new toy.

"Waver, you wanted a peaceful world, one where you could right your wrongs. I on the other hand, desired for a world that could pique my interest… and it seems I got just what I wished for~"

As he finished his words, James pulled a black tophat from god knows where. 

His actions caused the group of young men to pause, but their reactions were ignored by James who gave them a slight bow as he tipped his hat as he said-

"Farewell boys, I wish you luck in your future endeavours~"

His words were odd but before anyone could say anything he vanished- yet… no one, neither the young men, the bystanders or the crowds seem to bother about the weird occurrences.

"Watch out!"

"Huh?"

*CRASH*

Midtown High School, Queens

Located in Forest Hills, Queens, this high school is a well known gathering spot for many important individuals in this universe.

James Barthomeloi appeared atop a nearby office building, his eyes glowed with an azure light as he scanned the whole school.

To others, what they would see is nothing more than a regular high school. A four storey structure with various facilities for learning. Groups of kids walking around, bullies being bullies, nerds being nerds, jocks being jocks.

It was the standard image one would expect of an ordinary everyday American Public School.

Yet, in the eyes of James, the school took a different appearance. 

His eyes had a special nature to them, but just because they were special did not mean that they could be used casually.

Any other being who saw what James could see would go mad, their minds breaking down at the sheer scale of information being reflected in those azure eyes of his.

"This world's root"... I could see why Earth became the center of all the chaos in the universe… this is simply… just one point and it already carries this much mana… its truly… amusing~"

James smiled as he watched the groups of kids stroll around the campus, his eyes focused, finally it landed on a certain "young lady". 

As his gaze focused on her, the information he viewed became more "focused" and as he scanned through them with his gaze, the expression on his face slowly became brighter.

In a matter of seconds, a flashback that would have taken multiple acts, multiple chapters and even long periods of character development were all laid bare before James. Yet, only James knew what it was that he saw and this led him to one conclusion.

"I choose you~"

With such words, James vanished from the office building.

Down on the grounds of Midtown High School, Cindy Moon, a Korean-American 12th grader turned her gaze towards the nearby office building. Her eyes looked up at the rooftop of the building looking for something.

"What's wrong Cindy?"

Beside her, a white haired, green eyed teen with a figure that would put many adults to shame turned to Cindy.

"It was… I just felt like someone was watching me"

Hearing her words, the white haired girl's expression turned grave, her eyes darkened as she responded.

"Is it those anime nerds? Tsk- bunch of perverted freaks!"

The white haired girl turned her dark gaze towards a group of younger students. They sported t-shirts printed with eastern animation characters. Some had sweaters, others jackets that mimicked the image of certain characters' clothes.

"Fel, its not them… it came from the office building…"

When she responded to her friend, Fel, also known as Felicia Hardy, Cindy realized something as a shiver ran down her spine.

"THAT'S WORSE!"

Felicia exclaimed, she glared at the office building trying to find the perverted man who was staring at teenage asses.

Unfortunately she did not see anyone standing by the windows. Hell, when she looked closer she realized that the office buildings looked really- empty.

"Don't bother Fel, that office buildings are up for demolition. No one should be there… also, since its really close to our school the police are really strict in cleaning up the place preventing drifters from making it their home"

"So, are you saying that you were just imagining things?"

"Maybe…"

Cindy looked back at the top of the building, she didn't really see anything but she only felt a gaze. But after looking at the building multiple times over, there really was no sign of any living thing in it.

"How about coming home with me? Just to be safe"

Felicia, still not fully convinced that it was all just Cindy's imagination did not want to take any risks. 

Even if the cops made sure that the office building was empty, who knows if some madman actually got in.

Moreover-

'Cindy, you don't know just how attractive you are'

Felicia was not being paranoid, throughout their years in high school, Cindy was chased by many horny assholes. There was even a time when she almost got roofied at a party! 

It was fortunate that Felicia was there and kept an eye on Cindy, if she wasn't at that party, Cindy might have already been taken advantage of by the scummy jocks on the football team.

'It's always the football team but what do you expect from a group of men acting manly and showing off their "manliness"? They claim to be strong but they are the first to break when they get teased'

Felicia sighed internally as she looked at her dear friend with eyes filled with concern. 

Cindy on the other hand simply looked around, trying to find the source of that gaze. Unfortunately for her all that did was cause some misunderstandings.

The boys she looked at all shivered with fear, they turned away as if seeing a ghost everytime her gaze landed on them.

The classic misunderstanding development could not happen now, Cindy was already in 12th grade, she was graduating in a few months and her reputation in the school is well known.

Of course there were idiots who thought she was into them but before they could try to stand up and walk to her they were quickly held down by their friends.

All it took was a few words for these stupid kids to shiver and turn away.

"I guess I'll sleep over tonight"

Unable to find the source of the gaze, Cindy decided to accept Felicia's proposal which made her friend let out a sigh of relief.

In one of the classrooms, a young man with a head of white hair smiled as he watched the events that transpired on the school grounds.

"Cindy Moon and Felicia Hardy… the year is 2008, Peter Parker is not even 10 years old… Gwen Stacy… it appears that even Harry Osborn is still a kid… Michelle Jones Watson is still a kid but- Mary Jane? Now this… is truly amusing~"

Sitting in the empty classroom, the white haired young man, James Barthomeloi pondered about the various things he had just learned about this world.

"Still, mutants exists, unfortunately I don't really recall much of the X-Men series… maybe I could use the root to trace the mutants?"

Ever since he came to this world, James Barthomeloi had found himself in a state of- freedom.

Few people would understand his state, heck, even he had taken a few years to truly acknowledge his own state. 

But in those years were not wasted, the amount of knowledge, power and experience he had gained is what allowed him to respond calmly to the situation he was now in.

When transferred to an unknown space, the first reaction would normally be- panic. Some may even break down in fear, others would go mad and abuse the things that they have to test the limits of this new reality they have been shoved into.

James did none of those, instead he carefully observed his surroundings, gathered as much intelligence as he could and based on the knowledge he had he formulated a plan.

"I'm not a world traveler with some broken system, a golden spoon that allows me to become god in a few hundred chapters… but- well I don't really need those do I?"

James spoke to the empty space next to him, some may call him a madman but-

"Yes master"

The shadows distorted and a figure appeared, a woman of average height, with glossy blonde hair that covered half of her face. She sports a fashionable black maid dress, with a knee length skirt designed with elegant frills and white quillings, while the upper part of her dress was form fitting accentuating her alluring figure.

She has on her two accessories, a simple choker and a pair of evening gloves. Coupled with her ponytail and a pink umbrella, this blonde woman looks less a maid and more a cosplayer but many would pay untold amounts to have her as a maid nonetheless.

"Hilda, how's Suzaku doing?"

"Yes, the 10 Manservants have successfully infiltrated the government offices, they are now in the process of creating an identity for the master"

Hearing the words of the woman named Hilda, James nodded his head before asking.

"What about Sebastian?"

"The butler has found traces of the criminal underworld, a full report on the various connections will be done by tonight"

"Impressive"

The status of his servants were far more amazing than he initially thought. 

"Have none of you encountered any magical elements?"

"None so far"

"I see"

James paused, ever since coming to the Marvel universe, James had been acting quite openly. Despite knowing about the various hidden powers and secret organizations, James simply followed his SOP. 

'Is it because the method we Magus use is more secretive? Or is it because that bald granny is turning a blind eye?'

Understandably, James was not all that stupid, he was acting this way in order to gauge the levels of the people in this world.

Yet, even then, the people he feared the most were not the secret mind controlling organizations, nor did he fear the elusive mutant groups. No, what James feared were the ascetics who could traverse the universe by tracing a circle with their hands.

'Even I struggle with space magecraft'

He did not want to get interrupted by a bald granny walking into him doing the unspeakable. As such he had to find out what their stance was.

But the multiple baits he had let out did not even catch the surface level threats…

'Should I be more… nah, that's no fun. It'll only turn into me going, "But that's not even my final form!", boring~'

James mused before turning to Hilda, his smile wide as he said.

"Let's play~"

The blonde woman's expression changed, a blush appeared on her face before giving James a shy smile.

'Yeah, creating artificial wombs really creates more "emotional" homunculi'