Chapter Text
My head felt like it was being put under a hydraulic press. Fortunately, like all things, what goes down must come up, at least I think that’s what the saying is.
So, over the next few excruciatingly long minutes I managed to slowly begin to look around. Which confirmed what I already expected, given the unfamiliar bed I was in and my current headache. I was of course in a hospital room.
I tried to test my memories, but they returned mostly static, just some fleeting images of people I had never met before and me looking down a flight of unfamiliar stairs.
The door to my room slid open, and a nurse walked in. Her eyes locked on to my own. She smiled and stated, “Your parents will join you shortly, Doctor Abrams is with them right now.”
I gave her the blankest look I could. Sure I remember having a mom, but she died when I was four and then Dad never remarried.
So when a white lady and an asian looking dude who didn’t look a day past 30 entered my room I was even more confused.
It must have shown on my face, because concern immediately radiated harder off their faces when they noticed my expression.
“Who are you?” I blurted out.
“We’re your parents?” said the asian guy with a smile that seemed to hide a bit of pain behind it.
I noticed as the doctor who had entered behind the couple coughed. The couple turned to look at the doctor who winced.
“I’m sorry Mr. and Mrs. Chido it appears that your son might be suffering from some form of amnesia. This is something that we cannot test for, but does occasionally happen when dealing with head injuries. It is likely that he will recover with time.”
My ‘father’, ever the pragmatic man, [Why did I know that?] responded first. “If he doesn’t?”
The doctor somehow winced harder, “Then you will unfortunately just have to make new memories. I’m sorry, there is no treatment for amnesia other than time. Fortunately your son is young enough that his brain should have the plasticity to help recover his memories.”
Silence deafened the room for a few moments, before my ‘mother’ walked over to me and began rubbing my hand in a calming gesture. It felt nice. I hadn’t had two parents in two decades and having two again was nice.
Wait, hold up, why am I just going along with this? I’m 24 dammit, why would my ‘parents’ even need to be informed about me? I need to know why.
Then with dawning horror, it hits me, the transmigration novels, the isekai, the self inserts, I was in one of them.
I must have shown something on my face because my ‘mother’s’ face softened even more as she looked me in the eyes and put her other hand on my cheek. “It’s going to be okay Alex, we love you no matter what.”
So, like the child I now was, I immediately started to cry.
In my time spent crying the doctor had left, so as my sobs slowed, I noticed the nurse re-enter my room. She whispered something to my ‘father’ who nodded stoically before nodding and walking over to my ‘mother’ and I. “Mariah, they just let me know that visiting hours for this ward are over, we’ll need to leave in a few moments.”
Pure annoyance radiated off of her as she looked at my ‘father’ before her eyes betrayed her acceptance. My ‘father’ nodded at her, before placing his hand on my shoulder and speaking to me with a warm smile, “We’ll be glad to finally have you home son.” I looked back at him with as blank of an expression as I could, before nodding back. He took that as the acceptance it was and then moved for the door. My ‘mother’ wrapped me in an excellent hug, before she too moved away back to the door and exited with my ‘father’.
I laid on my bed for a while still trying to comprehend what had happened to me.
It was absurd. It was insane. It was ludicrous. It was somehow both logical and illogical at the same time.
I was placed here against my will in an unknown world, in an unknown body, for an unknown reason. Did anyone tamper with my mind, I clearly had some gaps in my memories, especially any of them relating to where I lived now.
As my mind drifted around, so did my eyes. It was then that I noticed the sheet of paper with a note on it, next to my bed. I immediately grabbed it and began to read it.
"Congratulations my champion! I have moved you into the body of someone who has passed away and their corpse was just a shell. So as we discussed, no worries on having killed anyone to inhabit their body! You were really quite the fascinating soul and I did truly enjoy our discussions immensely. It pains me that you had to forget it all. Anyways, just for your forgetful monkey brain, I will reintroduce myself. My name is TYCHAIOS and I am the embodiment of randomness. With the help of the CREATOR I have managed to have you placed into this newly created universe legitimately, so no need to worry about anyone guessing you aren’t the original soul placed into the body you are currently in. Well, that’s about all I am allowed to say about our arrangement. So, I sincerely hope you lose our wager on random elements changing the equation of fate.
Best of Luck,
TYCHAIOS
Lord of Random, Arbiter of Chaos, Adherent of Order and Chaos, Ruler of Fate and Destiny, Assistant of Death, etc etc.
The letter made me smile in a nostalgic feeling, before I came to the realization that I couldn’t remember what I was nostalgic for. I stared at it a while longer. A new new universe huh? The help of the CREATOR, whoever that was. Souls? Randomness? Fate? I wasn’t really in a simple situation was I, well at least beyond the whole transmigration part. No classic truck-kun for me, just being placed in a body by a couple of entities I can only assume are gods. This whole situation is so absurd.
After processing the information, I decided that I needed to get out of my bed for some fresh air and a lay of the land. So I bumbled out of my bed and made my way first to my ensuite bathroom.
There I caught a look at my face in the mirror. It was an utterly unfamiliar face, but at the same time, I could tell that it was mine and I was not wearing someone else’s skin. I was young, maybe in middle school? I would have to figure that out when I got home. I had white skin but with a healthy tan, dark hair, an excellent jawline and a very symmetrical face. I was reminded of a Greek god in my complexion and the features of my face, however I could see the influence of my ‘father’ in the way my smile matched his, I had his nose for sure, as well as his hair.
What really caught me though, were my eyes. They were gray at first glance, but a closer inspection with my head a few inches from the mirror showed something different. Within them it seemed as if the stars were shining through them, microscopic flecks of gold that reminded me of starlight seemed to be generated out of nowhere and flowed around in them. Then after a moment little flecks of black that darted around swallowing up the light. It was utterly mesmerizing.
After a bit of staring and a quick prayer of thanks to TYCHAIOS for my new mesmerizing eyes, I used the facilities before I left the bathroom and made my way out of my room and into the standard hospital hallway. At the end of the hallway I saw a door leading to a balcony which I made a beeline for.
Stepping outside, I was greeted with a small courtyard, which had a few plants in a center square dirt planter area and a number of benches surrounding the center square. Off the side of the balcony was the noise of a city and the skyline of what I could only guess to be New York given I recognized the Empire State Building, despite my memory loss. I was on a high floor, perhaps between the 20th and 30th floors. With a sigh I sat down and took a moment to enjoy the cool night air. It had only been about an hour since I woke up, but the day felt like the longest of my life.
The next day I went home. I tried to act like a child. No point in being found out as not being the same person as I should be. And while I seemed to fool my mother, my father didn’t seem to buy it. Although he didn’t look at me suspiciously it just felt like there was a bit more distance. Maybe I’m reading into it too much, maybe it’s just an Asian parent thing.
I think though, that I am fortunate, I do not remember any people being in my memories of my previous life, no friends, no family, no relationships. I think it must be edited in order to make sure I do not get depressed or anything about knowing I cannot see them again. Most of my memories involve my time spent learning things, at school or at home. Or my time spent learning life lessons, like that one time I got beat up in high school over a girl and that other time I got mugged. I also remember my time working at the local utility planning out the power grid for various development projects. None of my work experience will probably be useful for any of this, but I think the school memories will be an excellent way to skip a few grades.
After arriving home I finally got to see my room. On my bed sat a hoodie and a stack of AP level science textbooks with an intro to engineering book mixed in. I had a bunch of lego sets built on top of my dresser and the walls were full of Star Wars posters and plus a lone sports poster for the Yankees with a young Derek Jeter front and center. I had never really cared much for baseball, but I remembered him being a player in the 2000s and 2010s, not the 2020s. Which confused me for a moment until I remembered the cars I saw on my way back from the doctor’s, and the lack of any smartphones. Although some of the medical tech I saw in the hospital reminded me more of tech I saw in the 2020’s than I remembered from the 2000’s.
Ignoring my slightly messy room, I grabbed the clunky laptop sitting on my desk and began my research. A quick Google search and I had my answer, December 16th, 2005.
Damn.
I tabbed over to search for current headline news so I could get more context. There I found nothing of particular note, Bush was president, and Obama was President-Elect, Although I think it was slightly early for him to be president. Anyway who cares about that, it's not like I have to pay taxes or vote, it doesn’t really matter to me. Scrolling down the news list, I continued to find nothing that mattered, until I hit the stock market section. In the very first line of the first headline were words that made me have a little panic attack. “Stark Industry’s Quarterly Earnings Report Causes Shares to Rally 6% in After Hours Trading.”
I was in fucking Marvel, and since a quick search on the x-gene showed no results, I was likely in a variant of the MCU, because I cannot think of any Marvel property, sans mutants, that I would argue over aside from the MCU.
My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is definitely ruined by this knowledge.
At least now I know what TYCHAIOS meant by ‘changing the equation of fate’. I was going to have to fuck up Thanos, wasn’t I.
It was time to start planning, so I pulled up Word on my computer and began typing out my own timeline. Time for a safety check on the MCU.
Quick timeline recap for myself. 2008 is Iron Man. 2009 and 2010 may have Iron Man 2, but I’m not really sure on the timeline. 2011 has Thor. Then 2012 has the big one in the Avengers. So I technically have about three years until it all begins, but I have seven years until it happens for real. Fortunately for my health, I don’t have to get involved in any of the movie plotlines if I don’t want to. All of the plotlines will all work themselves out without my help. Heck the WW2 Captain America plotline has already worked itself out already if the Smithsonian exhibit I’m looking at online right now is correct.
All that to say, as long as I avoid New York, Sokovia, and all the movie places, I should be fine until Thanos shows up. Although there’s not much I can really do about any of it given I have no abilities I am aware of, nor did I have the genius of someone like Tony Stark to build a Thanos killing machine.
So what do I have? Well first, I don’t want to waste this second chance at life. Clearly I’m meant to change something in this universe based on the talk of fate from the letter. Secondly, I have some cool eyes, and given that I could remember every detail of every moment since waking up shockingly well, an improved memory. But that couldn’t fix everything, not a chance, even a second tony stark couldn’t have done much to defeat Thanos the first time. Maybe a second Thor would have helped, but given I’m definitely not an Asgardian that line of thinking is useless.
But, despite my second chance and memory enhancement. I have more pressing matters, such as figuring out the part I was supposed to be playing as Alexander Chido, son of John Chido and Stepson of Mariah Chido. I had no idea who my mother was, so I would also likely need to rectify that as well. So, time to get to snooping on my past self.
Two hours later, I couldn’t find much about myself. The most I was able to find were a few 360p videos from my last few birthday parties. Which didn’t give me much context into the person I was. I looked for a journal or a diary, and while I did find a few entries, they were clearly for a class journaling assignment so they have been of dubious help to my true character. So I’ll probably just have to wing it. I’m sure TYCHAIOS thought about all this before dropping me in here.
But all of this snooping brought me to my next problem. I have school in three days on Monday. While I should be able to get past the classes just fine, I have a bigger problem. I am supposed to have friends.
Ah yes, friends. I know this is kind of groundbreaking for people who get thrown into a regression/isekai/transmigration story, but as a former 25 year old man, I do not want to be friends with middle schoolers. They are kind of gross, annoying, and incredibly immature. Somehow middle schoolers manage to be more immature than elementary school kids, not sure why, but they are. So I think I’ll need to be a bit of a loner.
However, I am once again reminded of another problem, what should I do with my time? I won’t need to study, nor should I need to dedicate my time to socialization. So I should probably focus on the two activities that should help in this comic book universe. Sports(for the fitness, so I can run away from danger) and an engineering club to test my memories and previous talents(Not to mention that it could help me to fix my way out of a problem, it seemed to work for Tony Stark and Peter Parker often enough that I think it could be an unwritten rule of this universe and Marvel in general.
So, which sport should I pick that emphasizes both speed and upper/lower body strength? Probably American Football or rugby, but I’m pretty sure most middle schools don’t have that as an option. So basketball it is. Plus, if my school website is correct, the basketball tryouts are on Tuesday. Fortunately it is only a half week of school this week so I don’t need to worry about much homework being assigned.
Guess I’ll find out on Monday.
I awoke to a loud ringing noise coming from my alarm clock, not my phone, which was definitely a change from the usual.
6:30 AM had felt like a reasonable hour to wake up to my 25 year old self, but as a 12 year old child who required closer to 10 hours of sleep to function, it was still too early. Despite that I was ready to leave by 7:15 and hopped in the car to Fort Green Prep, the local middle school in Bed Stuy, on the outskirts of Brooklyn.
“Did you sleep well?” my stepmom asked as she watched my yawn through the rearview mirror.
“Well enough.”
“Oh? I think we both know you were up too late last night.” Which made me stiffen reflexively.
“Yeah just doing some research on head injury recovery time.” I lied poorly. I had been looking at news reports over the last few years to see if any of my memories of Marvel properties had any value. No luck so far.
“mhmm. You know I can see what you look at through the Wifi router?”
Oh fuck. No more research at home then. I don’t think I can explain my searches to anyone. I made sure to keep them as vague as possible so an organization like Shieldra wouldn’t take note, although if he was looking, Jarvis would have definitely flagged my searches.
Time to go for the good ole homework lie. “I just saw an assignment of mine that was due and I wanted to finish it.”
I could see the corner of her mouth twitch up at my response. “Sure, Alex.”
Fuck. I’d been outplayed in the easiest way possible. I couldn’t have waited a couple days and done my research at a library or something. Maybe being 12 results in a massive logic debuff. Yeah that must be it. I can’t be that stupid. Time to go for the other old reliable tactic.
“Haha yeah I must’ve gotten confused on which day I on it.” I tried to laugh it off. Fuck that made no sense, why would I get confused about something like that.
My stepmother’s mouth somehow twitched even higher up. “Of course Alex. Now did you pack everything? Books, lunch, gym uniform, pencil pouch?”
Thank God, back to safer ground. “Yeah I packed it all.” I replied.
“Good.” she responded.
A few moments later we stopped in front of the school. “Have a good day Alex!” she said, blowing me a kiss. This time though, I remembered to stay in character for a 12 year old boy. So channeling my younger self, I knew to get out of the car quickly and pretend to avoid the social interaction to avoid other people seeing my stepmother’s affection. At the end of all this, maybe I should try acting, I think I’ll be a natural by then.
I had four classes today. Homeroom, English, and Science were in the morning. While History, Gym, and Math occupied the afternoon. Then at three PM was the basketball tryouts.
I keep wondering if I’m going to run into any characters at my school from the MCU. Though I’m pretty sure it’s unlikely. Isn’t Peter Parker around 16 for Homecoming, which is in 2016? That means he’s about five years old right now, so I shouldn’t have to deal with any of his villain and superhero nonsense. Although I will still probably change things just by existing if I interfere in the plot even tangentially, however I don’t think that’s the kind of thing that will change a lot.
I don’t know how long I can do this for. I’m already only two hours into the day, and I can’t stand to sit still much longer. The classes are boring. It’s clear I don’t have any friends at school, so I will need to make some if I don’t want my time to be absolutely awful here, although finding any who aren't annoying and immature will probably be a nightmare.
It’s now lunch, and I'm just remembering how awful cafeteria food is. I’m so glad I brought my own food.
The only good thing to come out of the morning classes is that I have now decided how I will deal with school. I need to not stand out too much, that’s always a bad thing in Marvel. People that are too different in Marvel always attract the wrong kind of attention. So, I need to blend in with everyone to an extent, but I don’t think I can handle middle school for very long. So I think I’ll ask to test out into 8th grade, which would put me ahead by two years, but would let me start taking classes at high schools nearby if I remember correctly from my time in high school, would get me out of this godforsaken, hormone riddled, objectively gross, school for a little bit of the day.
Secondly, I need to start on my extracurriculars, especially for college and for my own safety. It’s probably for the best if I pick up some kind of fighting skill in this universe. Being able to actually hold my own would be fantastic, although I hope I don’t end up with a member of the Hand as my teacher. Being kidnapped and forced into obedience is definitely not optimal, so i’ll need to go with a martial art that isn’t Asian. If my experience watching a couple of UFC fights is anything to go by, I’ll just go with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu(BJJ). Now for my second activity, I need to build up stamina, but I also want some kind of team sport, so I’ll go with the only sport I know anything about, and is popular in Brooklyn, basketball.
Honestly despite the torture of the last few hours it feels good to have made the decision to —
“RING! RING! RING!”
Fuck. Back to class. Man it feels weird to have my day so entirely dependent on the ringing of bells.
My stepmom arrived in her black BMW to pick me up at 3:15. She was all smiles as I contemplated how to ask about moving up two grades, try BJJ and try playing for the basketball team. I decided on the divide and conquer for the strategy. Both my parents would probably be supportive of my moving up in grades, both of them would support basketball, but BJJ would probably be a stretch for any mom to allow at age 12, so I would need to get Dad on my side first.
“Mom, I’m thinking I might try out for basketball tomorrow.”
“That’s a great idea sweetie! It would be excellent if you could make some friends.”
Oof. I guess I really don’t have any friends.
“When are the tryouts, I’ll make sure to pick you up afterward.”
"I'll be there." She glanced over from the driver's seat. "Do you need basketball shoes? Shorts? I don't remember if yours still fit."
...
Right.
Growth spurts, I forgot that part of being a child again. Fuck I had to deal with a second puberty wasn’t I. At least I’m not dealing with that as a woman, thanks for putting me in a male body TYCHAIOS.
"I think they're probably okay."
"Probably?"
"...Eighty percent confidence."
She laughed.
"Alex."
"What?"
"You've always answered questions like you're writing a science report."
Huh. Interesting.Maybe that was a habit from the original Alex rather than me. Or maybe it’s a nerd thing?
"I'll check when we get home."
"Good."
The conversation died after that, the radio filling the silence with some early-2000s pop song I vaguely recognized but couldn't place. So, I spent the short drive staring out the window.
Out there, Tony Stark was somewhere inventing tech that was so advanced, it wouldn’t even exist on my earth 20 years in the future. Nick Fury definitely spying on someone.
While battles between superheroes, nazi’s, and aliens were coming, for now I just had to figure out my steps, one at a time.
Dinner that evening consisted of grilled chicken, rice, and vegetables.
I had underestimated how hungry I was as twelve-year-olds. I inhaled the first plate in under four minutes.
"So," John began between bites, "your mother mentioned basketball."
I mentally corrected him. Stepmother. Then I immediately felt guilty. Was this delineation between Mother and Stepmother something I got from my original self or was it my new personality bleeding into me from the original Alex?
No.
The worry she’d shown in the hospital over me. The way her face smiled when she saw me. I didn’t remember my original self’s mother, nor Alex’s original mother, but I didn’t need to think too long to decide. She was definitely my mother.
"...Yeah."
"You interested in it all of a sudden?"
"I figured I should do something after school."
"Good answer."
He nodded once.
"No point spending every afternoon behind a computer or in your room reading books. You should make new experiences and some friends"
Well… that was positive. I should definitely capitalize while the moment is here.
"I also wanted to inquire about something." I nervously asked.
John fully looked up at me.
I took a breath. "I think... I'd like to take the placement exam for eighth grade."
Silence.
Mom slowly put down her fork and John stared at me intensely.
After a long pause he finally spoke, "You've missed two weeks of school,".
"I know."
"And you want to skip two grades."
"Yes."
"Why?"
Because I'm a twenty-five-year-old trapped inside a middle-schoolers body.
"I've been bored."
Technically true and likely something they had noticed from watching me before I arrived in this universe.
"I knew everything in today's classes and when I asked about refraction affecting the outcome of our experiment in Science class, the teacher couldn’t explain how it would work. I just...don't think I need seventh grade." I finished.
John watched me for several seconds.
The man had one hell of a poker face.
"John..." Mariah added with a strained face.
"No, he's making a reasonable request." Dad responded.
He turned back to me.
"If you can pass the placement exams, honestly, I'll support it."
Seriously?
It was that easy, why didn’t my previous self ask about it before? Based on the science books in my room, he could be in his freshman year college at this point.
"There are conditions."
Ah.
There it is.
"You don't stop being a child just because you're academically ahead."
Ah yes, the Peter Parker dilemma, why he didn’t skip grades despite his genius..
But in my case it was a bit different. Although I definitely couldn’t tell them. If only they knew. Hah.
"You'll still participate in extracurriculars."
Fair.
"You'll still spend time with people your age."
Ok, I guess I have no choice but to make friends.
"And if your grades or social development suffer, we revisit the decision."
"I can do that." I responded.
"You don't know that."
"I..." I caught myself.
"I'll try."
His expression softened slightly.
"That's all I wanted to hear.” A mischievous smirk dawned on his face before he quoted, “Do or do not, there is no try.”
Mariah sighed dramatically. "I feel completely outnumbered."
John smiled. "You were outnumbered the moment he started reading College textbooks for fun."
She pointed accusingly at Dad. "This is your fault somehow."
I responded "I don't think that's possible. At least from a genetic standpoint."
She blinked.
John snorted.
They both laughed and I awkwardly smiled along.
It felt… warm.
I'd only known these people for two days. Yet somehow this dinner made this place feel like home.
That night I finally checked the closet.
And, buried inside a shoebox— basketball shoes and shorts.
I set them beside the bed before sitting down at my desk.
My laptop hummed to life. No internet tonight. Lesson learned.
Instead I opened the timeline document I'd started yesterday.
Known MCU Timeline
- 2005 - Present.
- 2006 - nothing of note.
- 2007 - nothing of note.
- 2008 - Iron Man.
- Seven years until New York.
- Approximately thirteen years until Thanos.
I stared at the cursor.
Then I wrote out my basic objectives.
Objectives
- Stay alive.
- Don't attract SHIELD.
- Don't attract HYDRA.
- Don't attract the Hand.
- Don't accidentally become a child prodigy famous enough for anyone to notice.
- Make boat loads of money.
- Get stronger.
- Graduate early.
I looked over the list.
It seemed...
Reasonable.
Then another thought occurred to me.
I slowly typed the ninth objective.
- Figure out what these eyes actually do.
Because there was absolutely no chance I had been given glowing, galaxy-patterned irises just because they looked cool. There had to be a reason.
Given the cause and effect nature of the marvel universe, sooner or later...
Something was going to happen, and my unnatural eyes would reveal the reason their existence.