It was late 2007, nearing the end of the year, and New York was abuzz with pedestrians and traffic in the morning. Yellow cabs screeched across intersections, their horns providing a soundtrack to the morning rush.
The sidewalk was full of people walking to work, many not even glancing at each other. Some were in a rush, while others were just too busy rapidly clicking their phone keys to pay any attention. The air tasted like exhaust fumes, damp asphalt, and the scent of cart pretzels with the morning sun rays shining in the New York sky.
Adam, having left the cafe, was walking in a crowd of people following the directions in his memory to his home. He adjusted the hood of his hoodie, feeling the fabric brush against his neck. To anyone he passed by, he looked just like any other teenager, but currently that teenager was having a rather intense internal crisis.
'Grisha Adam Sokolov, is it just a coincidence or something else? I have the same name and somewhat the same appearance as the Adam from Lord of Mysteries, the previous owner of this body, also some of the traits of Adam from LOTM, like emotional and social distancing, putting on different masks for different situations, and the main trait, he liked to observe everything.' As he thought this, his gaze was drawn to a newsstand, particularly to a newspaper front page, and his world came to a sudden screeching halt.
On the front page of the newspaper was a photo of someone Adam knew very well. It was a face anyone from his world would know. He was staring at the unmistakable, arrogant smirk of Robert Downey Jr., and the headlines were: "Tony Stark's new weapon for the Military."
Reading this headline and seeing the photo of Robert Downey Jr., Adam could not believe what he was seeing, for if it was real, he was in some deep shit.
Adam's face went blank. Aside from a single twitch from his left eye, his exterior showed nothing, but internally, he was drowning in dread. His heart hammered against his ribs. His stomach dropped into a pit so deep he didn't know if it would ever see the light again. His mind raced through countless images of Gods, Aliens, and Demons, alongside the countless battles this world would face in the future: The Chitauri Invasion, Ultron, and how could he forget that big purple potato, Thanos.
He was even having a panic attack stronger than the one he had in the cafe, and suddenly, as if a switch was flipped, the panic attack stopped, and his mind felt like it had bathed in a clear, cold spring.
'What? What is happening? One second, I am having the worst panic attack, and the next second, my mind is feeling like I have had the best sleep and best relaxing bath of my life.' It was as if his mind had been enhanced; he could now recall memories better, he could now observe and analyze better than before, and most importantly, he could now see very, very clearly. It was like all his life he was seeing everything in a blurry way, but now it felt like an HD movie.
He could now see in the distance very clearly, and even more astonishing was that he could now tell what someone was thinking by analyzing their expression, mannerisms, body language, and their subconscious actions.
'Wait… isn't this the powers of the Sequence 9: Spectator from Visionary Pathway? The pathway of Ada—wait, Grisha Adam from LOTM, and I am also Grisha Adam with just the surname Sokolov added. Did I transmigrate into that Adam's body?' As he was thinking this, he subconsciously started walking toward his home.
Ten minutes later, he came in front of an apartment building that felt like it had seen better days. The building color was a rust-red relic of weathered bricks, its facade scarred by a zigzagging fire escape and topped with a heavy crown of cornice.
Adam quickly entered the building and went up the stairs, his apartment being on the third floor. After a grueling climb, he finally came to his apartment door, took the keys, unlocked the door, and went in.
The inside of the apartment was somewhat better than the outside. It was a rental; after his parents' passing, this was the only place he could afford with the money he had left. Entering through the front door, he stepped into a small corridor. To the right of the hall was the washroom, to the left was the kitchen, and straight ahead lay the small living room, with the bedroom branching off to its right.
As he came in, he went straight to his second-hand clunky laptop to do what someone in his place would definitely do. He went on the Internet to do some research about which universe he was in, the MCU or the Comics, or an amalgamation of both.
After waiting for the laptop to boot, the first thing he searched for was anything regarding Tony Stark, and looking at the results, he came to the same conclusion he reached after seeing Robert Downey Jr. He was in Marvel, alright. Now he just had to discover in which universe it is, so he searched for someone who might not exist in the MCU.
Charles Xavier!
And would you look at that, he was here in this universe, and he looked just like Patrick Stewart. Adam clicked on an article written by Professor Charles Xavier about genetics and its mutations and read it.
There were also articles that said Professor Charles Xavier ran some kind of School for the Gifted.
Next, he searched the Fantastic 4 but did not find any mention of them. Finally satisfied, Adam closed the laptop now that he confirmed that this universe that he found himself in is indeed a mix of both the MCU and the comics, but there were some inconsistencies; for example, the timeline did not match.
Charles Xavier was here, and he looked younger than he was supposed to be at this time, but the Fantastic 4 and especially Reed Richards are not here, or if he is here, then he is currently not famous.
Having finally confirmed the chaotic nature of the universe he was stuck in, the topic shifted to his powers...