I float in nothingness.
No up, no down, just an endless, heavy black. My mind drifts somewhere between panic and acceptance, but for some odd reason, I really, really crave light.
Its like suffocating without oxygen, but your still alive, I need light but it just isnt there for some reason ... and i hear a noise.
Wind blowing, yeah thats it, I can hear wind blowing, but thats odd isnt it? How can I hear wind blowing if this is the afterlife, I should be dead afterall.
Lights flooding in ... but im dead arent i?
It seeps in like water through cracks. Tiny, glowing veins stretch through the dark, crawling over surfaces I can't quite see until I realize… they're not around me. They're in me.
Shapes sharpen. Walls of glassy crystal surround me, refracting faint beams of light as the brightness grows. I twist, and i feel what im in, im not floating in nothingness, im encased.
A crystal prison, that from what I can sense, is freefalling through the air, a meteor?
If im just seeing light then I must be entering the atmosphere.
The reflection that stares back at me from the nearest shard makes my nonexistent stomach drop.
A humanoid form, black and sharp edged. Light ripples beneath the surface, trapped, like a thousand flickering stars. I reach toward my face and freeze. My eyes. They aren't colored. Just… blank, pure white. No pupils, no irises. Like someone forgot to finish rendering me.
I know what i am, Necromza, the pokemon. Which would be pretty broken, but i feel like a shell of what i should be, and Necromzas eyes are rainbow and glowing no? Meanwhile my eyes are dull white.
And my mouth well, there isn't one. Where Necromza's eerily glowing rainbow panels that flicker between colours when he roars should be, there's only smooth dark crystal.
I panic, and try to control my new body, and I can feel my limbs respond sluggishly, heavy as if Im moving through syrup. Power hums faintly in me, but it's weak, I feel like im at 2% or something.
Before I can dwell on it, the universe decides to make things worse.
*BOOM*
A deafening explosion rips through the void, and the prison around me trembles violently. The light intensifies, my meteors probably reaching terminal velocity.
I brace as the world outside roars by, the impact slamming into me with a shattering crack. For a second, everything goes white. Then silence.
Dust settles.
I push at the cracked surface around me, but it's tougher than it looks. Every attempt to claw myself out fails, and I dont have enough space to wind up a strong punch, and so in my infinite wisdom I throw myself at the wall full force.
The shell shatters, and I tumble out onto scorched ground.
I crouch, pick up a piece of broken crystal, and test my strength. With this power ... and new body, I can feel that i must be insanely strong.
So i twist my entire body into it, and as hard as I can. I toss the shard, and to my amazement, it lands a few meters away.
Oh, so im like twice the strength of an above average man? That seems pretty weak ... im pretty sure Necromza a threat to the world or something, buuut if i come to think of it I feel pretty drained, maybe ill have to get my power up by doing like, something? I dont know.
But wait, where even am I? I know im Necromza, but im in the ruins of a city so this cant be the pokemon world, i turn around to see my surroundings an-
*FWOOSH*
Im flooded with the sense of energy all around, I can feel light. Not just see it. Every streetlamp, every glowing billboard, every flickering car headlight, tiny beacons stabbing at my senses all at once. It's like standing in the middle of a concert with every spotlight aimed at my brain.
It's way too much. I stagger, clutching my head, trying to block it out. Then, amid the chaos, I sense other lights.
People.
Fascinating, I can feel their energy, and the energy around them.
If I can sense it… can I take it?
Necromza absorbs light doesnt he? Light should give me energy and power. Could I take the light of others to strengthen myself?
Tempting thought, let me test something really quickly.
I lift my claw up and i try to siphon light from the area around it, and it works. The lights drained from a small sphere in the air, it looks like a little hole in reality, its completely void but I can ever so slightly sense it getting lighter and lighter, itd get completely bright again in what, a week?
The energy i got from that little sphere of light was really small too, I went from 2% to 2.01% which is not ideal.
I could take more, but id need to absorb a cities worth of light for half a percent of power, and I dont wanna draw THAT much attention.
Come to think of it, attention from what? Still havent figured out where I-
*CLANG*
A metal sign clatters on the ground next to me, must have shaken from the impact and recently fallen, and on it reads-
"CITY Z MARKET DISTRICT."
I see, so im in ... the One Punch Man verse? My favourite anime, sweet! Oh shit ... i havent read the manga, and I died before season 3 came out which means i know basically nothing.
Fuckkkkkk I shouldn't have avoided spoilers, well I guess im not coming in blind atleast.
I shake my pondering off and start testing my body. My steps are heavy but im pretty quick, when I push off the ground, I move faster than I expect and i can blur forward in sharp bursts. Speed, not strength. Good to know.
Id reckon I can go about the speed of sound, but im already feeling sluggish so I dont think i can sustain that speed for long.
Im a psychic type no? Im pretty sure I should be an esper, if not a very weak one. Let me test something out.
I focus on something small, a shard of black crystal lying in the crater. I reach out with my mind, trying to lift it. The energy in me flares, and flickers, but the shard trembles… then rises.
I grin, mentally of course, although im pretty sure my eyes beamed slightly neon white for a bit.
Heh, im a psychic, so i guess i-
...
I can feel something approaching, no, two things.
Two lights, well more accurately, two infernos approach. Powerful, much more then the light surrounding me.
My minds screaming danger but instinctually ... im realising that im kinda hungry.
I turn just as the two figures arrive and stand behind me.
One points a few clawed hand at me.
"Identify yourselfssss! Are you a member of the monster Associationssss?"
Monster Association.
The words echo through my head. I glance past them at the shattered skyline, the collapsed buildings, the empty streets. Ruins everywhere.
A sinking feeling settles in.
Im in City Z ...
Well I cant speak, like at all, and I dont wanna be roped into the Monster Association so I guess ill have to kill them both, but im not all that strong, and they both feel like tiger level threats.
Hmm ... I have an idea, a snake with hundreds of cat claw hands on its side like a centipede on the left, and a lizard on two legs wearing a tiger mascot suit.
Should be pretty easy to deal with, if my plan goes right.