He moved slowly through the lab, the sound of his footsteps echoing across cold metal floors. Rows of containment pods and surgical tables lined the walls most broken open, some still sealed, and many occupied by unmoving figures.
He paused beside the first one.
A young woman. Thin, with insect-like wings partially folded beneath her back. Her expression was peaceful, though her body bore the marks of experimentation. Strange energy clung faintly to her, like heat long after the flame had died. Not a quirk. Something... older. Wilder.
Next was of a tall figure with deep red skin, curled horns, and a long tail. Though lifeless, the air around him felt distorted, as if space had shifted one too many times in his presence. All For One reached out, sensing the echo of a power that once let this being move between places without crossing the space between.
Another table. A pale woman with shimmering crystalline patterns frozen along her arm and neck. Her body had partially transformed into something harder than diamond, yet it remained incomplete — like a shell interrupted mid-formation. A psychic trace lingered, dull and buried, but still present beneath the surface.
Further down, a man slumped beside a cracked stasis pod. His mouth slightly open, his throat marked by strain. Something in the atmosphere near him felt compressed, like sound had once been forced through the space with such intensity it left an imprint behind. A voice, once weaponized.
All For One stood still, hands clasped behind his back, observing.
He didn't know their names. Didn't need to. They weren't from his world. Their powers felt unfamiliar — not quirks born of artificial evolution or societal conditioning, but something more primal. Mutations born of nature, perhaps.
Yet even here, in this alien world, he could feel what he always sought:
Potential.
The energy in the air was faint, but not gone. These bodies weren't just remnants of the past — they were fragments of power, waiting to be understood. Or claimed.
He turned away from the last table, a faint smile crossing his lips.
Whoever had created this place, whoever had experimented on these beings… they had failed to see what truly lay before them.
But he would not.
He moved through the lab with a deliberate and slow pace, his fingers brushing so lightly against the cold metal surfaces of the tables as he passed. The corpses lay still, each one a husk of something that was once alive. Their powers, too, were husks now — fragmented echoes that still hummed in the air.
But the power…
The power was not gone.
All For One had lived long enough to recognize it. Even in death, these beings held remnants of what they once were — traces of energy, like faint embers struggling to remain after a fire. He had no interest in their bodies, no sentiment for their lives. But the power? That, he knew. That, he understood.
His gaze fell upon the first corpse of the young woman with the broken wings. Without a second thought, he extended his palm toward the table, his fingers hovering just above her still form.
A strange warmth pulsed beneath his skin, as if the air itself had thickened, filled with something new, something sharp. His breath hitched for a moment. The feeling was familiar — the sensation of power rushing through his veins, surging and steady, yet unfamiliar in its origin.
Like electricity, a spark of some sorts.
It flowed into him, filling the empty places within. He closed his eyes for a brief moment, absorbing the energy, savoring the burn as it coursed through his body. It wasn't that much, but it was enough. He could feel the flickering remnants of flight, the tingling pulse of acid forming in the pit of his stomach. He could feel her, in part her fear, her potential. And now, it was his.
He moved down the lines.
The next body, the one with the red skin and curled horns. He placed his palm against the chest of the fallen mutant, his fingers making contact with the cool skin. The air shifted around him. Space itself seemed to bend, almost imperceptibly, and for a fleeting moment, he felt the urge to disappear. To move beyond this place.
The sensation faded as quickly as it had come, but the power had remained. It was subtle not the raw force he had wielded in his prime, but something adaptable, useful. A tool for survival, a new way to manipulate his environment. The power was his now.
He took a step forward, his attention fixed on the next body. The woman with the crystal skin. There was something delicate about her, yet inside the broken shards of her transformation lay raw psychic energy, dormant but still present. He touched her arm, fingers brushing against the jagged edges of her diamond form.
His mind buzzed, the power immediately attempting to push through his consciousness, sharp and invasive. He gritted his teeth as he let the energy in a flood of cold, distant clarity, a depth of perception far beyond the limits of mere physical senses. It threatened to overwhelm him, but he mastered it, as he once did, pulling the power into himself like a river carving its way through stone.
Now, her mind was his, however faint it may be. Her psychic traces lingered in his own, a second layer of awareness to add to his growing collection.
He moved on again, the last body in his path. The one with the broken throat, the one who had wielded sound as a weapon. The air around him hummed with faint echoes of pressure, vibrations he could still feel pulsing through the room.
This one would be trickier. A sonic power, perhaps? He placed his palm gently against the man's throat, feeling the faint pulse of lingering energy. A silent scream. A burst of sound that could break eardrums, rupture the air itself.
He closed his eyes and took it in.
The vibrations shook his bones for a moment, and the power, raw and uncontrollable, surged through him. It was different from the others, far more volatile. But All For One had always thrived in chaos. He could sense the potential in this one, the destructive force that he could mold and control.
One by one, he had absorbed their powers, each a new ability weaving its way into his mind, into his body. It felt... right. As if he were returning to his self. It had been so long since he had felt this whole, this complete.
His fingers flexed, the surge of power still humming in his veins. His breath steady. He straightened his back and surveyed the lab. The bodies, the broken pods, the remnants of lives and experiments... None of it mattered now.
He was going to become whole once again.
He was unstoppable.
And this world would soon learn that of the name All For One.
One by one, he had absorbed their powers with each new ability weaving itself into his mind and body like the old threads finding their way back into a forgotten tapestry. It was not the same as before… no, it was more. Each mutation carried something strange, a raw, untamed and yet, he bent them all to his will.
His fingers flexed slowly, testing the weight of these new gifts. Energy stirred beneath his skin. A faint glimmer of light shimmered across his palm, then vanished. With each breath, he felt himself growing more complete more powerful.
This world… this place…
It had not meant to resurrect him.
It had not summoned him with purpose or design.
And yet, it had awakened him.
He turned his gaze to the ruined lab one final time. The dead watched in silence, their stories ended, but his had just begun again.
A low chuckle escaped him hoarse, guttural, scraping through his throat like rusted chains.
"New powers. New laws. New prey," he murmured, eyes glowing faintly beneath the flickering lights.
He took a step forward.
Then another.
The stolen abilities pulsed beneath his skin like fresh blood in old veins.
The machines that had once held him was broken.
The world he knew was gone.
But that did not matter anymore.
Because a new one had taken its place.
And now…
The Demon Lord will reign upon this world.