*Alex Breckton POV*
*Year: September 5th, 2025*
*Location: New York City, New York*
"Sure, you don't want-want a *hick* ride, man, I mean I should be good enough to drive."
My friend, Richard, or Dick as we called him in private, said to me as he grabbed his keys to his old something-something car. He looked like a shimmering fat guy, but I knew he was almost distributively skinny, like get-help skinny. He said he had...had a...Honestly, I forgot as I swapped his hand away and pointed at him.
"Nope, and you *burp* need to take a bus like...like I'm gonna do right now."
I said as I twirled around a bit and began to walk away from the bar, and as I walked around, I could feel my legs stumble a bit as I went towards the nearest best stop. I wobbled back and forth as I held in what I hope is normal vomit. I leaned against a light pole and leaned into the trash can, and I could easily smell the putrid smell of this city's foulness condensed into a single bucket.
Then and there, I let it all out, all of the nights' various drinks, snacks, and food all merged as one. I kept on vomiting for what felt like hours, when it's only been about five minutes. I knew that because I saw the bus stopping nearby and feeling better, I walked toward it, ready to enter and sleep this all away, smiling as I knew I had tomorrow off. Stepping inside, I could see the whole thing was empty, literally not even a homeless person on board. Shrugging, I put some cash in a box and went toward the back, wanting to lie down at the back of the bus.
I tried my best to direct my legs forward, to tell them that they could rest when I sat down, but once the bus started moving again, I pretty much fell and landed on the floor of the bus, my head on a dirty old bus seat. Which was pretty much the only sign my body needed to fall asleep; I could feel my eyelids grow heavy and my body slowly shutting down from exhaustion, ready to sleep.
I thought I heard the bus driver mumbling something as I drifted off to sleep. As my eyes closed, I saw, instead of your typical bus driver, a weird...shadow? I lifted my head up, barely blinking slowly before slumping back down and feeling the last bits of energy of my body leave. Then I felt the last bit of feeling leave my body, the darkness taking over, and my night of drunken fun ending.
*Year: December 6th, 1992*
*Location: Underground Lab, Alaska*
I woke up in a panic, my body thrashing around as my mind raced with brand new ideas, things I didn't know nor couldn't know for the very fact they weren't real. I could also feel something...something new coursing through my body, as though it was both always there and yet not at the same time, as though it was newly added. I then saw a weird mask over my mouth/nose with a long tube going upward, with several other smaller wires attached to my bare skin that...that had several scars all across it, I couldn't tell if they were burn scars or something different.
I could also see that I was floating in some strange green liquid inside a glass tube. I could feel my eyes bulging as I started to freak out, alongside that, I felt...I felt a new sensation, like an invisible field or something was there.
{Already feeling the AT Field, little halfing?}
Frightened, I turned around rapidly, looking everywhere, seeing a large lab all around the tube I was stored in/experimented on. While I saw several monitors, really old-looking ones, alongside several file cabinets of some, but no one was there.
{Am...Am I going crazy? Is this some massive drunken dream or hallucination?}
{That is a fair assumption to make, but no little halfing, I am not, and nor are you in your original body...well, technically you are, but no longer are you purely human}
{Your body is the result of CYOA choice "Angelic Aberration (Neon Genesis Evangelion)" and you should be feeling the result of both your newfound power/knowledge, just as I did when I was like you}
I stared at my hands, my tanned skin replaced by a pale white with scars all across them, leading up to my chest, which, when I looked down, had a large burn-like scar in the middle. Then I processed what he said, no more specifically the 'CYOA' word, and I looked all around me. I slowly realized that I was a drop-in, a drop-in who was summoned/contained in a pickle jar. Which meant that there was probably some mad scientist wandering around right now doing god knows what with my blood or some other form of insane experiment.
{Who the hell are you and what the hell is happening!}
{A fair question, well, simply put, I was another version of you, simply enough, or rather a human that shared the exact same DNA}
{My name and history were different from your own alongside the CYOA choices that led to my creation, that being my new existence as part of the VELBER from the nasuverse}
{Currently, I am destroying what you would call...the lizardmen of the Adromeda Galaxy, as ordered by my Creator}
I think I froze in that as I slowly let that sink in, the idea of another me who was both me but not at the same time, destroying an entire civilization. Alongside his own nonchalance at the fact he was...it was just so terrifying when you thought about the idea that this civilization-destroying being was talking to me for some reason. Was it out of boredom, pity, to inflict terror, or something so alien to me I wouldn't understand it?
{I am surprised by how free you let your thoughts roam, although the only reason I am able to read them is our temporary mental connection via a third-party being, and my own curiosity at the current situation}
{Do not worry, your current version of Earth Bet is not due for destruction anytime soon by the local sapient/sentient beings standard}
{Right now, you have the combined knowledge of Academy City from the toaru anime, gifting you the ability to create espers and artificial angels, alongside The Seed of Knowledge from Neon Genesis Evangelion, the same universe your newfound body comes from}
{Oh, interesting enough, you now know the martial arts of Bang and Bomb from OPM, with the unrelenting fury of Metal Bat, an interesting combination to see alongside Stickman Mastery, making you far more deadlier than before}
{Nowhere near The Warrior Entity's level, but useful for the various Parahumans and Endbringers not present within what most realities call the "Worm" or "Parahumans" series, although that depends on their overall abilities}
{Although Innocent monster combined with Case-53 should be interesting to see when combined with the other perks/drawbacks chosen for you}
{Ah, it seems I am running out of time and must return to my duties. Do you have any more questions for me before the being who dragged you here talks your ears off?}
I was flabbergasted in all honesty. I mean, I could feel the newfound knowledge in my head alongside a whole pile of other stuff. Yet I-I wasn't freaking out, I mean, no more so than usual when you find yourself in this kind of situation. I did try to scream at first, but the mask over my mouth/nose made that impossible.
{What...What else do I have to deal with beyond all this?}
{An excellent question, well, you have two unique possible threats you will have to deal with in the future, one is "Clone Conspiracy" from what I saw, meaning you have three clones ready to be born with slightly or entirely different abilties}
{Alongside the drawback called "This Party's About to Get Crazy" which in fairness is a far better option than the first two before it, but still that nowhere near the chaos the three new Endbringers will bring into the equation}
{...Say what?}
{Although I guess the Academy City, Neon Genesis, and Camelot Knowledge from Code Geass make you more of an, what does DND call it? Ah, yes, an Artificer combined with the Monk class, with the Aasimar race chosen, albeit far more balanced and useful}
{Oh, this has been so much fun, but I'm afraid our time is at an end, little me, and I do hope you survive against Scion or The Warrior Entity alongside his nasty little parasitic species}
Then, before I could even hope to respond, I felt a massive weight leave my body, as though I was holding up a heavy boulder unknowingly, but then and there, I felt it be lifted up. I tried to get his attention again, to make him somehow respond to me and give me answers, like who did this to me, what the deal was with the bus driver, because I'm starting to think that the shadowy figure I saw in his place temporarily wasn't a drunk hallucination.
Alongside the fact I...I felt different, less like myself, and as if my very humanity had changed. Wait...he said something about Innocent Monster, Case 53, and Angelic Aberration, but he didn't say anything about a "humanity" perk or something like that, some way to retain my humanity, my connection to the other half of my race. If what he said was right anyway and even then...I have memories of these things, I know martial arts that don't exist in the real world, not because people wouldn't want to learn, but rather because of physical limitations.
Although that was mostly the more straightforward bits of information in my head, alongside that weird ability of Metal Bat's. Even then, Innocnet Monster increases my overall strength and...and strengthens my connection to the angel side of me. Meaning I go further and further away from humanity in exchange for more power. At least that's the basic gist of the information I was given.
Yet whoever made the choices, whichever me did all this instead of further focusing on physical, magical, or hell even divine abilities to complement them. He instead chose mecha knowledge and the scientific side of the Toaru universe. Sure, the AIM field could be useful; hell, who knows, maybe the creation of a level 6 Esper could be completed here and drive off that Warrior Entity my other self was talking about.
Alongside that...I had no idea how useful "The Seed of Knowledge" from the CYOa covered how to create EVAs, alongside an assortment of weapons/advanced vehicles capable of space travel. That and the Spear of Longius, but again, there was no way to fully put that knowledge to use without knowing if it would be usable in this particular universe.
I mean...I was familiar with Worm in some form, but that's mostly through fanfiction, wiki, and other shit instead of actually reading the webnovel. Either way, this lab...this place, I had no idea where this location was, nor the current year, because for all I knew, this guy put me in a tube to study me for one reason or another.
That's when I heard footsteps; they were a bit heavy, but also light enough to still hide themselves when they wanted to. Then, as they walked around the corner, I saw my captor for the first time. He was a large man, literally covered in dark brown fur, wearing a large white labcoat, black pants, and a grey shirt with thick dark gray boats to match, and on his face were thick glasses that looked appropriate and weird at the same time.
The man had a bored look on his face as he wrote something down on his clipboard.
"The board will hopefully see the validity-" While he spoke with a monotone voice, he quickly stopped himself once he saw that I was awake.
He nearly dropped his clipboard as he took a few steps back as other machines roared to life. With fear on his face, he began pressing a few buttons, and well, I didn't like where this was going, and well, I tried to wait it out, see if he would reveal any information about where the hell I was or just what kind of Para-no his not a parahuman, at leastI don't think so, instead somethign at the back of my mind recongized this being. Like he wasn't a case 53, parahuman, or anything resembling humanity, but rather...a second species.
One that was born alongside humanity and integrated together into a different society, an entirely different history. Hell, the USA might not exist anymore; it could be something like the United Coalition of Nations, or UCN, or something like that. Don't know how I knew that, but it must have something to do with that CYOA. Either way, right now, I didn't want to find out just what he was about to do, so I slammed my fist against the glass, testing my strength and seeing just how far this new body of mine could be pushed.
I then saw a weird octagonal flash of light as the glass cracked under the weight of my fist, freaking the scientist out further. I then kept slamming against it, freaking the guy-thing out further. Honestly, I couldn't tell his gender because, for all I knew, his deep voice was actually what the females of his species sounded like. Either way, as I slammed against it a third time, it shattered, releasing a torrent of green liquid stuff that I was floating in. I landed at the bottom of the cylinder and felt the cold, hard metallic ground for the first time.
I then proceeded to rip the mask and wires off one by one; each wire was a painful reminder that he had time alone with my body. Of which I didn't want to know what he did, but at the same time.
"You are going to tell me just what the hell you did to me and where I am?" I said with a hoarse voice.