Chapter One:
The Void
That was where Lewis was, most likely. It was dark. There was no light, no stars. Only darkness.
Lewis Thomas remembers dying. He remembers the death and how he died. He remembers the sharp pain of the collision — And then? Nothing. Void.
'Damn it, Truck-kun. You couldn't have waited until the end of the week to get me?' Lewis remembers thinking, midair during the collision. 'I've just finished my date! I was about to get it on, dammit!'
Reflecting back on it, Lewis was certain he had his priorities straight, even in the face of death.
Growing up on the poorer side of the middle class, Lewis was more of a rebel than anything society wanted him to be. His parents were divorced — a mother that didn't want anything to do with him and a father that worked too many hours to have the energy to discipline his child.
Don't get Lewis wrong, their indifference or unavailability, in his father's case, gave Lewis more freedom to have fun in life — To just be free.
Sadly, it was this same freedom that was taken away briefly during his many trips to juvie.
Lewis will be the first to tell you he wasn't a saint.
He had never been in gangs, killed a guy or,you know, graped someone, but defacing government property with colourful dick pic drawings in spray-paint, breaking into government buildings just because it was fun to get the security to chase him, and performing parkour acrobatics across rooftops in over 66+ something counties across Seattle wasn't exactly legal or the work of a good samaritan.
Still, if Lewis will miss one thing about this life, it will be the happier times he did manage to make with his old man. They were all he had. His mother left them without a word one day, only for divorce papers to arrive in the mail less than a week later.
Financially, his pops managed to keep them afloat as a deputy police officer, somehow even through the whole legal drama with that accursed woman.
'I just wished I hadn't left him on such sour terms. It also doesn't help that I died before getting some action, though. I know I'm far from a virgin, but that doesn't mean I didn't like the girl. And Christi…Fuck, she was such a baddie, too! Damn it, Truck-kun!' Lewis thought, annoyed.
As Lewis floated in the endless abyss, a realization occurred to him.
'Damn,' he thought absentmindedly. 'I've been floating a long time. Isn't there supposed to be a R.O.B. to appear to grant me wishes, or something?'
As if the thoughtful reflection summoned them, a pair of golden eyes as vast as galaxies and as deep as the void itself appeared suddenly. Its gaze locked onto Lewis in a penetrative stare.
'Oh, there they are,' Lewis commented.
"Little mortal soul. I believe you are familiar with the process," the mouthless pair of eyes spoke, after evidently scanning Lewis's soul. "Your destination has already been chosen for you. You will be reincarnated into the Marvel universe."
'Comic or MCU?!' Lewis blurted, disoriented. 'Or Fox or, like, Sony?'
"A merging of all of them," the being said. "You have three wishes: one limitless, one major, and one minor. You'll also receive a random perk and a condition once you've made your choices. Now choose."
'If I am going into a verse where encounters with reality warpers are commonplace, then I need power sets that will benefit me most,' Lewis thought before deciding on his choices. "I've decided.
"For my first wish, I want to be born with a mixture of abilities — specifically Captain Comet's abilities from DC at base and Sentry's abilities to be dormant until certain conditions are met + Vibe's abilities from DC, but tweaked to be able to access not just the Marvel multiverse, but the omniverse itself as well."
"That last part will also be dormant and then restricted until certain conditions are met," the being warned, to which Lewis nodded his assent.
"Very well. Your first wish will be granted. Next?"
"For my second wish, I want a top version of technopathy that allows me to connect, copy, adjust, and create anew entire A.I. systems throughout and even beyond the Marvel greater omniverse."
"Granted. You will be restricted to three starting out, though."
"Understood."
"Next."
"I want a planet and world of my own — one that submits only to my will, one where I can control everything."
"You will gain access to it on your 19th birthday, and it will be protected from all senses, divine, cosmic, and mortal, until your 21st birthday. That is all I will guarantee," the being spoke, much to Lewis's annoyance.
"Very well," Lewis consented. "If I may be so bold as to ask for clarity on why stipulations need to be implemented to my abilities. I think I kinda get the first wish. That wish was OP in nature. But why the other two exactly?"
"Entertainment perpurses," the R.O.B stated dryly. For one thing, the process of Isekai is as much as entertainment to us as it is ascendency for you. It is why we grant you these boobs, and why we restrict them to certain degrees. You are are stories to us, made to entertain us throughout the eternities of our lifetime. Nothing more, nothing less...Most of the time, anyways."
Lewis blanched at the raw truth that was just uttered to him. 'This smug bastard...'.
Shaking his head, Lewis compartmentalized this for later consideration -- Or just to forget it, he'll decide later.
"Is that all you wanted to know, little mortal soul?" The being asked, amusement in his tone.
"Yes," Lewis takes.
"Good. Then, wish granted," the being said. "Your perk will be the ability to balance out all and scale the balance of all. Your condition will be an alter ego — a second personality named 'Thrill,' which will remain dormant so long as you keep your Sentry abilities dormant. When you activate them, you'll activate Thrill, too."
Lewis, digesting all this, nodded his understanding.
"Very well. Good luck," were the R.O.B's final words to Lewis. "May your journey be entertaining for me and all my friends."
The giant pair of eyes glowed brilliantly gold before Lewis Thomas' soul was ejected from the Void, and all he saw was brightness — and all he felt were constricted walls.
He was actively being reborn, quite literally, and the world was not ready for him, not even nearly.