Disclaimer - I don't own Marvel/Disney IP. I am just a humble keyboard warrior. Also, the Chaos Gacha was made by Bronz here. I am just dipping my toe in the water, so to speak.
Public Library, NYC
–?--
[Bottomless Swamp]
|Uncommon Ability|
Allows you to transform the ground around you into a bottomless swamp that traps any targets that step on it, making them sink further into the swamp, if they fully submerge, they are fully incapacitated and enter a stasis-like state.
A very useful ability, especially in an urban setting against common or common adjacent folk, as it allowed him to subdue them non lethally and even knock them out if they were completely submerged in it.
He had a couple of questions regarding the limitations of such an ability because there had to be pretty egregious ones for it to have such great utility and still only be an uncommon ability. Probably something to do with range, time taken to activate, and then something else.
TING! You now have two abilities. Ability [Vinelash] has occupied the primary slot. Wish to swap it out for [Bottomless Swamp]? Y/N
Ah! There it was. The restriction. He dismissed the notification before looking at the browser that was fully opened up. Noting the time, he realised that his little mental debacle had cost him 2 minutes. So, leaving behind the thoughts of exploring the limitations of the abilities slots, he typed in the first thing that came to mind that would be safe from being flagged by the multiple three letter agencies in this world.
Tony Stark.
Immediately, multiple actual articles popped up, instead of an AI summary that was not helpful most of the time, focusing on Tony Stark and the Iron Man suit. Apparently, he had unmasked himself three years ago and was currently embroiled in a bitter media as well as legal battle with the US government over his actions for national security.
He was winning the media battle, but the legal battle was yet to commence, with a Senate hearing scheduled for next week. The face matched with what he had seen of the MCU, so did the face of his secretary/lover/CEO.
Closing the tab, he typed in yet another name that should be safe from any scrutiny, noting that he still had 50 minutes left. He just hoped that the Countess standing by in the common section that did not require ID, would not draw attention.
Captain America.
As expected, most of his articles were focused on his war efforts, some grainy recorded speeches along with some vague details about his previous life, which were mostly hogwash when he cross referenced them with what he knew of the skinny boy from Brooklyn who became the super soldier everyone knew and loved.
Going through all of that super quickly, he confirmed that all the faces matched with what he remembered, and then, after going through every single corresponding hyperlink in one of the more detailed articles, he closed that particular window and prepared to go for a more risky subject.
Knowing that mutant would be a flagged word, even if their existence was well known in this universe, he instead chose a more innocuous word.
Superpowers.
And voila! There it was. Conspiracy theories, comments on deleted Reddit posts, and more. All pointing towards an urban myth of people having superpowers, ranging from fire breathing to changing hair colour.
Then, he tried a slightly riskier one.
Superheroes.
That just led to more and more articles on Tony Stark and the Iron Man suit, and endless debates on who was the real hero, Tony or the Suit and if so, who should get to decide the wielder of the suit? It was all very circular, and he immediately shut that down.
Noting that he still had half an hour left, he decided to search for something that pertained to his situation, knowing that it would not be fruitful but hoping that it would.
Reincarnation. Transmigration.
He sighed, slumping in disappointment as the results led to either cult-like websites all but begging him to join them for a small monthly fee or fiction that inevitably also led to fanfiction. God, that was a lot of Tony Stark fanfiction on the internet here.
He snorted quietly as the notion of people writing SI as Tony Stark fanfiction both here and back in his previous universe, with the same amount of glazing, with similar fantasies as well.
World Peace. Global Hunger. Clean Unlimited Energy. Harems and more.
It was as if he was on a rather famous website that hostedfanfiction on the net, reading through fanfiction, wading through shitty ones to slightly less shitty ones to genuine gems, where he was left wondering why this person was not out there as a professional writer, as he kept on reading, his eyes roving over the text.
For a moment there, it felt as if he was back home, in bed, ready to sleep, but telling himself the lie of one more chapter, and then, abruptly, the screen blacked out, his session having been terminated, as the hour was up.
He just sat there for a moment, feeling slightly lost, blinking in confusion before he snapped back into the moment, turning around to look at the Librarian standing near the door, pointing at her watch.
Sighing, he nodded, contained this sense of loss, and began walking away. Alcina looked up from the book she had been reading and followed suit as he wandered aimlessly, watching it already become dark outside so soon.
Sighing in disappointment as he did not get a ticket, of any sort, for researching about this universe, he began walking in a random direction, in search of a hidden place to open his portal to his private hidden dimension. The only flaw of that perk was the fixed open and closing location.
Otherwise, he would have had a bootleg teleporting ability on hand. He also had a new ability now that he wanted to test, but not without the relative cocoon of safety that was his new pocket dimension.
He had a rough idea as to the character that existed here. Tony Stark was the MCU variant, so was Cap, and if he had to guess, so were the rest of the Avengers. No deviations in the origin story of the ones he could publicly find.
Then, there were the whispers of the mutants, of the freaks on the internet that were pushed to the bottom of the forums that were not very active themselves. So, yeah, he still did not have an accurate idea as to which universe he was in but let's face it, he might never know that particular piece of information.
Content with the knowledge that he was at least not in the Zombie Universe or the one where Hitler won, he searched for a spot to park his pocket dimension to..
Not having a source of music, it was a little different at first, but after a while, his thoughts kept him company just as music would whenever he went for a long walk back in his previous life.
Alcina followed him with just a little distance in between them, on the lookout for any threat. She was surprisingly competent at this, not that she had to step in anytime, but just the fact that he could use her without gathering attention was enough for him to keep her around for longer.
Because he had to be honest, he would much rather prefer a less dangerous, less powerful person who was not just a vampire but an evil vampire. He was not going to judge someone solely based on their species, but her actions, as far as he could remember, portrayed her to be one of the worst of her kind.
Turning a corner at random, his steps slowed down as he saw the scene in front of him. Looking back, he saw normal traffic, normal stores, and normally paved roads. Turning around, he saw holes–no, craters everywhere.
Pavement. Road. Hell, even some of the buildings had holes in them, on top of the crumbling ones.
Curious as to what this was, and how a global, rich city like New York could have such a visibly damaged place, he continued walking, only this time focusing on the damage instead of the thoughts in his head, which were ironically, playing music at the time.
The more he walked, the more he saw, and what he saw was…not pretty. Aside from the obviously homeless people, there was a lot of structural damage done to the place the further he went from the main roads. Half collapsed buildings, damaged streetlights, and hydrants that were clearly just ripped off and not replaced after.
It was as if a demolition crew had gone through this place for fun, and then just put people in the aftermath.
His gaze then went upwards, to a bright green board that read Harlem.
His eyes widened as he remained rooted on the spot, looking at the remains of the legendary fight that involved the Hulk.
"Holy shit," He silently cursed as he realised what he was looking at. Apparently, the military set loose a Hulk on this part of the city and just never bothered to clean up? Well, that was to be expected of the government really. Third world or first world, no government likes to take responsibility for their actions and, furthermore, deal with the consequences.
By the time he reached this place, the sun had set completely, and the only sources of light were the still working stores, some dangerously tilted streetlights, some houses that had their lights on and the occasional car passing by.
All in all, a good place to commit a crime, or to hide an activity that you did not want anyone else to see.
Say, opening a portal to a pocket dimension.
Nodding to himself, he gestured for her to stay close, as they walked into a clearly drug deal potential alley and decided that this was going to be the next anchor point for his pocket dimension. All they needed was a door.
Actually, what were the requirements of the door to be used as a gateway to his home away from home? Did it have to be fixed to a wall? Did it have to be secured, one with a lock? Could it be a door that did not lead into a human establishment? Could a lid work?
All questions that needed answering as his hunt for a workable door continued.
__xx__
"So, can you steal wallets from people without them noticing?" He asked Alcina, whose facial expressions were not consistent with the look of hatred she gave him before answering contemptuously, "Easily."
"Cool," He nodded as they continued walking towards areas of less and less activity and probably more and more crime, ergo, more criminals to steal from.
"So," He continued after a couple of minutes of walking, "Here's what we're gonna do….."
___xx___
His face met his palm with a rather crisp clap as a trembling gun was currently pointed at Alcina's face, who stared impassively at the barrel of the gun in disdain. Well, in her defense, the gun was not going to damage her in any meaningful way but he was not worried about her to begin with.
No, he was more worried about the fool who still had not realised his wallet was stolen, who had not taken the hint of Alcina not being interested in him beyond any ill gotten cash he might have on hand.
Apparently, her eyes, bright and yellow as they were, especially when she was emotionally agitated, which she was when the man put his hands on her, were enough for the man to freak out and pull a gun on her.
Anyone still on the streets, still looking, had quickly vacated the streets at the sign of the gun, making his job easier as he sighed quietly and switched out his current ability slot to the Swamp ability.
Instantly, awareness of the power and the land beneath him filled his mind, as the range, strength of the swamp, and viscosity of said swamp was calculated as he made a split second decision.
Really, he was doing all of this to save the man. Otherwise, given the order, Alcina might just bisect the man and drink all his blood in less time than it took for him to get stuck in the swamp.
Quickly stepping out of the shadows, he thought he was being silent, but apparently, the man had better instincts than he expected, as he saw the gun moving in his direction. At the same time, almost in slow motion, he saw Alcina's face twist into one of pure demented happiness.
He didn't even think he had it in his puny mortal brain to observe, analyse, and come to a conclusion so fast as he shouted with all his might, "STOP!"
The same shout and his outstretched hand in a bid to save the man from being impaled, bitten into and overall killed was taken as a sign of aggression as a gunshot rang around the area.
The man screamed like a little girl as he too blinked at the sight in front of him. One moment he was looking at a sinister Alcina just on the verge of ripping the man apart and the next, he was looking at her back, her form twitching in place as the commands he gave her stopped her from transforming into her gigantic form.
The sound of yet another gunshot brought him back to reality as he swiftly activated his chosen ability and gave her yet another command, grateful that she had saved him, "Silence him and knock him out."
Barely a second passed before the man was slumped on the ground, slowly sinking into the swamp he had generated with his ability. Apparently not satisfied with the rate of sinking, Alcina just pushed the man into the ground with her foot. Right on the face, too. Then again, the man had threatened his life not just once but twice.
Still, he gave her a look. She shrugged and bared her teeth at him, slightly elongated but nothing that would indicate her vampiric nature. He supposed that the commands to not draw attention and keep quiet were still working. Oh…
"You can talk, quietly, without revealing your true nature."
"I need blood." He blinked at the request, spoken without any of the vitriol he was expecting, as she eyed the swamp with hunger in his eyes. Ah, there it was, the drawbacks of having such a powerful familiar.
"No."
Her neck snapped to him, face twitching as she controlled herself from transforming. It would seem intense emotions easily bubbled to the surface, as she was no doubt about to go on a tirade. Before that, he spoke up, "We need to leave. People will be arriving soon. Walk with me, speak quietly and make sure that no one kills me."
He repeated the last command just in case before walking away, only to look down and see that the swamp followed him along wherever he walked. It had a small radius, probably a couple of meters in each direction, but that area was visibly a swamp.
He couldn't stealth run in this!
Taking a deep breath, he stopped and ignored the confused look on her face as he found himself unable to deactivate the ability, meaning he could not dispel the swamp without taking the man out of it. Well, it was good that he didn't accidentally kill the man by dispelling the swamp.
Obviously, it had limitations. If it could transport people without any signs of the ability being used, it would have been rated much higher. So, with a thought, the man was pushed out of the swamp, deposited on the ground. Unconscious.
The swamp disappeared as he commanded the one with the much higher strength to easily move the man.
"Move him behind that dumpster." She complied with his orders without any complaint, but he was once again reminded why absolute obedience was totally different from absolute loyalty.
She just lifted the man by the neck and began dragging his limp body towards the dumpster in the alley. Her hands eased off when he immediately added a hasty, "Alive!" To the commands before she came back, her face set in that eternal annoyed scowl.
Taking a look all around, he saw no people and sighed in relief before speed walking. To the best of his ability, he'd seen through the area and found no CCTVs pointed towards their location so hopefully, that delayed SHIELD from knocking on his pocket dimension's doors.
Taking the wallet from her, his eyes brightened when he saw a wadded roll of cash, only for the glow to dim when he saw their denominations.
Mostly tens and a couple of twenties.
Not good but not bad either. Enough to get some niceties for his pocket dimension. Also, time to find out if there was a day/night cycle in his pocket dimension. He just needed a nice entry point, and he found just the right place to experiment if the key worked the way he thought it would.
They came across a construction site, graffiti sprayed on all the notices, with the locks broken and building material either broken or pilfered, depending on the pellets he was seeing discarded to the side.
Now, it would be very odd and highly inappropriate for a man to just brighten up and look as if he had found a treasure when looking at a bunch of dusty, half broken porta potties, but he had a reason for that.
Ignoring the smell, he walked forward, key in hand, and jabbed it to the door, smiling brightly when he saw the familiar white portal opening up.
Turning around, he ordered her, "Let's go," Before jumping through, reaching the familiar beach.
"Yup. That's the sun, alright," He said to himself, hands on his waist as he saw the sun still shining brightly overhead.
He was going to need a bunch of things, a sleeping bag being the most important one, for the short term atleast. In the longer term, a small house would be nice, along with all the modern amenities.
That was for later though. For now? He was just grateful that he had a safe place to sleep. The food he had earlier in the day had run out long ago, but he was not going to go out at night, not so soon after a shooting incident.
Had it not been for her, he would have been dead.
Speaking of her, he turned around at the continued tapping on his shoulder, "Yes?"