The first thing I noticed when I woke up was that I was not in my house. Hell, I wasn't even in my own body. "What in the world?" I say as he took in my surroundings. Judging by observation alone I seem to be in an abandoned warehouse. "This isn't my beautiful house." I look to my left and see a homeless person sleeping soundly. "This isn't my beautiful wife. My God, what have I done?"
As I finish my sentence, I'm assaulted by a torrent of memories. "AAAUGH". Collapsing to the floor, I begin to have severe headaches and flashbacks.
Earlier
"So, I'm sorry to say this but you're dead" said the floating, glowing orb in obviously fake sadness. We were both in a small 10x10 foot white room.
"Prove it"
"How do I- Okay listen. You were visiting family in New Orleans, you didn't know you were allergic to shellfish and you died at a crawfish boil.". As he finishes speaking a translucent screen appears. Showing what would normally be an extremely handsome (average at best) young man with a bloated, red, puffy face, writhing on the floor and scratching at his neck.
"That could've been anyone." I say without shame. A silence hushed over us for a solid minute.
"You know what. I was gonna explain the power I was gonna give you, even give you a nice starting point. But that right there pissed me off. So good luck and don't come back". Said the orb before shooting me off to God knows where.
Now
"AAAAAaaah" shortly after starting the headache stopped. "Well that guy was an asshole" I muttered to myself. Let's take stock of the situation. Abandoned warehouse, check. New body, check. Freezing my ass off, check. It's official, I have no idea who or where I am. I start looking through my pockets to find any idea of whose body I now occupy. Lets see, old, silver key, useless. *tosses away* Cigarettes, useless. *tosses away* Ow, a needle. Shit, am I a junkie now? *tosses away* Aha, a wallet. Lets see, no money. That means I'm broke. A membership card to Stop & Shop, I could get a discount on groceries if I had money. And finally, not a drivers license, but a student id. Winslow high school, Toole, Eric, H. At least I still have the same first name. Eyes green, hair blonde. Born May 3rd 1996. Issued August 2010.
Well, either old me is a sentimental junkie or I went back in time. I look next to me and see the homeless person still sleeping. A white woman with brown, greasy hair and tracks on her visible left arm. She looked anywhere between twenty and forty. That's what drugs do to you "Hey… hey" I tried shaking her awake. "Hey!" I smack her arm.
"Ah." she gasps as she wakes up. "Eric? Jeezus maaan, you scared the piss outta mee." she said either tired or still high off of whatever she… probably we did last night. The old Eric probably od'ed and died. That's most likely where I came in. "I know that loook on your face. You want another hiit dontcha." she slurred out. "Dont worry baby, mamas got juust what you need. But you know it's not gonna be free." the woman said as she spread her legs trying to look seductive.
"I- listen. miss, I don't want drugs, I don't want sex, I just want to know where I am and what year it is" I state as firmly as possible.
"What the hell're-'' I cut her off.
"Please Stop being an addict for five minutes and tell me where I am." the woman's face goes from seductive to worried.
"Eric, is everything oka-"
"PLEASE!" I yell , causing my voice to echo across the large vacant warehouse. She flinches.
"Y-your;e in the old canning factory near the docks, merchant territory". She says, trembling. "Eric what's going on? you're scaring me."
Wait a minute. Docks, merchants,. And what the orb said earlier about powers. 'Oh no' I think to myself. Growing realization dawning on my face "What year is it?"
"Eric, what-" she starts before I cut her off again.
"WHAT year is it?" she flinches again and starts trembling even harder.
"T-two thousand eleven. Please don't hurt me." the woman says almost folding into herself.
"FUCK!" I yell at the top of my lungs. I was in Brockton bay in 2011. I have no money, I have no shelter, and it seems my only companion is a junkie. I start pacing back and forth. What am I gonna do?
"Eric, are you okay? You're scaring me real bad." the woman said, approaching me.
"DON'T TOUCH ME" I yell out again. Waving my arms in a threatening manner. She backs up and falls over, eyes welling up with tears. Fuck now I feel guilty. I calm down enough to speak without yelling. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. It's just that I just woke up and everything's…a lot.`` I say as I sit down on some old, wooden crate.
She slowly approaches me and puts her arms around me. This time I didn't yell at her. "It's alright babe, tinker drugs do that sometimes. At least you didn't end up like Darren" she says placatingly. "You wanna talk about it?" she asks
I think about her offer for a moment. "no , I don't think I will." I say solemnly. I just sit there and think to myself while this woman, a complete stranger to me, is comforting me. As I think to myself I try to remember what the orb told me. He said something about powers. Did he give me any or did I piss it off too much? As I went through every possible superpower I could think of , I kept drawing blanks. While I can't think, let's talk to this lady whose name I don't know. "Hey.".
"Yeah?"
"What's your name?" I am trying to sound casual and not awkward at all.
"Are you serious? We've known each other for months." she asks, annoyed.
"I don't know, I guess it never came up" I lied, faking ignorance.
*sigh* "Julie, my name's Julie." she says exasperated.
I stay silent for a moment before speaking "...that's a pretty name."
"Thanks."
Suddenly I feel a buzzing in the back of my head. And then knowledge. Suddenly I learned about cars. A lot about cars. Not just cars, anything with a steering wheel. How to fix them, how to drive them, how to turn them into mobile death machines. Along with that I got even more knowledge about where it came from. It was a perk called vehicular skills from the Vehicles domain. Holy shit I got the celestial forge as my superpower.
"The key" I say , turning my head to where I threw it. Getting up from Julie's surprisingly pleasant hug, I began rummaging through the trash and used needles looking for it.
Watching me with curiosity, Julie asks "what're you looking for?"
"Earlier , before I woke you up I threw an old key over in this general direction. I think it's important." I explain while still moving stuff around.
"If it's so important then why did you throw it?" she asks, while still sitting on the crate I was just on earlier.
"Because I didn't think it was important at the time, but if it's what I think it is. Then it will change everything forever.". I explain, avoiding needles.
After ten minutes of searching I still can't find it. "It's not here. My literal key to the sweet life and I THREW IT AWAY!" I yell in frustration.
"Woah, woah. Calm down. Nothing was solved by being angry. Here smoke this, it'll mellow you out.'' Julie says pulling a pipe from…somewhere.
Maybe she's right. Maybe I do need to calm down, but I'm not smoking crack. "No thanks". Lets just calm down and think about this. In all the fanfics I read the key appeared in their pocket or hand when they summoned it. Maybe if I hold out my hand and think real hard… suddenly there was a bright flash of light and the key appeared in my hand.
"Woah! How'd you do that?" Julie asked from behind my shoulder, making me jump.
Calming myself down, I answer. "I don't know, I just thought about the key, and here it is."
"Are you a cap? Is that what that was all about this morning?" she asks curiously. Still smoking the pipe
"I don't know. I-I guess" I answer.
"What's it do" she asks, slurring her words a bit.
Walking up to the nearest door I turn to her and say "watch this."