Chapter 2 : A Life Not Mine
I woke up again — this time lying in bed, which was already an improvement.
A quick glance at the mirror reminded me why: I had passed out standing next to it, right after the whole "naked in front of my sister" incident.
Whatever urgent reason she had for barging in that morning was long gone. Hours had passed.
I shifted to check the clock. Yep — several hours later. A post-it slapped to the edge of the alarm read, in my mother's familiar handwriting:
"Rest. I had to go to work. Don't burn the house down."
Outside, the city was alive — or at least, alive as it had always been in my memory. Car horns blaring, kids laughing, the faint hum of buses — the familiar, chaotic symphony of New York.
I remembered this city not as it appeared right now, but as it had always been to me: the neighborhoods, the streets, the places that defined my life here.
Brooklyn, where the Captain America Memorial stood as a reminder of heroism and sacrifice. Hell's Kitchen — a name that evoked crime, danger, and relentless fights — the kind of place that made this universe both thrilling and terrifying. Skyscrapers like Stark Tower and the Baxter Building weren't just landmarks; they were symbols of power, invention, and chaos lurking just beneath the surface.
Knowing where I was didn't comfort me — it terrified me. Because if those names were real, then so were the monsters, the gods, and the wars that came with them.
The memories that had flooded me after the blackout finally began to settle: childhood, school, friends, family — all mine, not someone else's.
This wasn't a fake family. I had lived this life from birth.
And yet… with my old memories resurfacing from another Earth, everything felt different. Familiar, yes, but also alien — like watching my own life through someone else's eyes, hearing a song I knew by heart but couldn't quite sing anymore.
I leaned back, staring at the ceiling, letting myself catch up. I was finally "here" — fully awake in this body, in this world.
Then a thought struck me. I was… younger. Much younger. My old self had been in his late twenties, alone, without a family. No parents, no siblings, just a vague network of friends and coworkers that had slowly drifted apart. And now… I was eighteen again, a full decade younger, and surrounded by people who cared for me.
My mother was devoted, entirely focused on her children, and my sister — adorable, energetic, a little clingy — had already fussed over me that morning. It was almost overwhelming to feel this kind of attention. I remembered the loneliness of my previous life, the endless nights of coming home to silence. And now… warmth, chatter, the small chaos of a family that loved each other.
It felt almost cruel — to regain what I had lost, but in a life that technically wasn't mine.
The person staring back at me in the mirror wasn't just younger — he was lighter somehow, more vital. And yet, inside, I was still that older, wiser Alex — the one who had lived through loss and hardship. A strange combination: youthful body, experienced mind, and a family I had never known.
Then my thoughts turned to my "new" life. In this world, I was a student at Empire State University (ESU) in Manhattan. Funny thing was, in my memories of the "original" Marvel world, ESU was where Peter Parker had gone — Spider-Man himself. But here, Peter Parker was still in high school, attending Midtown Science and Technology High School, just like my little sister.
And that's when the unease started to creep in. Peter Parker lived across the hall from us, with his Aunt May… yet our common neighbor wasn't Aunt May but the Stacy family: Captain George Stacy and his daughter Gwen, who, incidentally, was also an ESU student.
Then another, sharper realization hit me — my relationship with Gwen Stacy wasn't just that of neighbors. In this life, we were… dating. A smile almost crept onto my face at the thought of being with her, but my mind recoiled at the idea of handling the relationship when I still hadn't figured out how to navigate my own family.. I wasn't ready for that, not yet. Not with all the chaos and confusion swirling in my head.
Alexander Orzat, born and raised in this world… and yet, still Alex, the guy from another Earth trying to navigate someone else's life.
For a brief moment, I thought maybe I could just… live. Pretend this was normal. But the universe had other plans. And I wasn't ready to face that part of this life.
The familiar buzz returned, soft but insistent, like an alarm you can't ignore.
[System initializing…]
[Memory synchronization: 100%]
[All previous data loaded.]
I groaned, hand over my face.
"Of course," I muttered. "Because why not add a talking UI to my identity crisis?"
Everything was there. Complete. Perfect. And terrifyingly real.