Chapter 1: Waking Up in the Wrong Universe
It was the rain that woke me up, it felt like I had been shoved into a heavy shower while still being in my regular clothes. On top of that, I was lying face down in a rather dirty puddle, my mouth wide open and my tongue tasting the muck.
"Fuck!" I shot up, my dripping wet hair slapping me in the face. Surprised, I tried to blink out the water from my vision, throwing out an arm to hold onto a nearby wall when black spots started to fill my sight and the world started to spin around me, causing me to lose my footing.
Because of the spots that filled my vision, the only thing that I could use to tell where I am was the sound of cars roaring past me at a subdued speed I'd expect from a busy street.
There were also some yells coming from people, basically, should people be speaking to each other loudly.
"God," I groaned as my sight returned. A searing ache hit my head like a bullet was going through it. "What did I drink last night to cause this?"
It looked like I was in some alley, in someplace that I didn't recognize at all.
I closed my eyes as the light from the street suddenly hit, telling me that it was some point during the day rather than night. With another groan, I spat out the muck from my little time with that puddle I was surely standing in by now.
It wasn't long until my balance was righted and I could stand on my own without the world feeling like it was falling down around me. It was then that I had a sudden thought, why is it sunny… when it was raining just seconds ago.
It was then the showering started once more, the sun getting blocked by the dark clouds that were no doubt above me at this very moment.
For the first time, I looked up, seeing the tall buildings that surrounded me being basked in beams of light coming from behind the gaps between the rain clouds.
"I've no idea where I am," I spoke suddenly, my head peeking out of the alley to see the people that we're walking on past me. "Which city is this? Ain't Dublin."
The Irish Capital had buildings with a different sort of architecture, the streets were designed with a different sort of pavement that was flatter, that was greyer.
The number of tall buildings as well was a sign that really highlighted that this was some other country, Irish cities didn't have many buildings of this size.
I glanced up the street finding that while crowded, it wasn't overly busy for such a wide place. At the corner of the street, I spotted a newspaper stand, I got an idea.
It only took a few seconds for me to get over there, a loud jangle in my pocket telling me that I had plenty of change to buy a paper. I put a smile on my face, trying to keep it natural as I strode up to the man at the stand.
My heart started to race, I didn't like the stare this man was giving me, it even caused me to shiver a little bit. Though that could've been just how wet my clothes were from the rain.
"Sup," Speaking absentmindedly, the man at the stall repeated the phrase back to me. I threw my eyes to the papers down below, finding the New York Bulletin staring at me with its' bold title page. I didn't even look to the main image or the head title, just the dates that were listed on top of the title.
May 2nd, 2008.
"This the latest paper?" I asked the man, for the first time letting my eyes meet his.
"Yeah, what of it?" he responded, only briefly looking down at the papers, though I'd imagine that he'd be seeing it all upside down.
"2008?" I raised a single eyebrow, twisting my head to the side so I could give the man a side glance.
"Yeah 2008," Now it was the Newspaper Stand Man's turn to glance at me funny, something that caused me to feel more than a little subconscious. "You feeling okay man?"
Licking my lips while scratching the back of my head, I could feel my heart start to race at the sudden thought that entered my head. Had I gone mental?
"Yeah, just gone on a bit of a binge last night, just woke up with a headache. So I'm just washy…"
Which was when I finally looked at the image on the front of the New York Bulletin… with the words written across it…
"Iron Man is Tony Stark, the CEO moonlighting as an international vigilante, is he a hero or a danger?"
I couldn't believe what I was reading, it was like someone had been playing a joke on me. Had Disney buying out Marvel lead to some bizarre New York theme part of Disney land where everyone stays in character?"
"Insane ain't it?" his voice brought me back out of my thoughts, causing me to sharply glance at the people walking around me, searching for some end to the streets that didn't look like a real city. "Stark thinks just because he has money and some fancy armor that he can take the law into his own hands, it's ridiculous."
"Yeah," Was all I could muster up, picking up the paper and throwing the man a few coins that I had on me, only letting the size of them tell me what they were, no doubt overpaying the man. I walked away, ignoring the man's call for me to return for my change.
My attention was too caught up in the article in front of me, talking about what the CEO of Stark Industries had gone through in the last few months, about how he was kidnapped, about how he escaped the adductors. It went into further details, but basically it repeated a lot of the Iron Man movie, barring the personal interactions.
Including how the "I am Iron Man" scene only happened yesterday.
If this was a prank, then I've pissed off someone with a lot of money. But I don't know what I could have done to Elon Musk?
There was a splash from a car hitting a nearby puddle that hit the lower half of my left leg, causing me to moan out loud quietly. Only the sudden growl from my stomach and a rather severe cramp stopped me from cursing out my life at the moment.
Before I could even think about what to eat my eyes caught a glimpse of a rather large sign saying all you can eat… 7.50 Dollar.
The windows of the place were red-rimmed, the door a blue shade that clashed with that red horribly. Something that I hadn't thought possible before now, at least to my understanding of color-coding.
The place was called Joey's or something like that, I honestly couldn't be bothered to read it properly, I was just so hungry.
"Stomach, you're about to become full." I grinned while walking forward through the doors of place, some family-owned place from the appearance of it. The inside seemed to say the same to me as well, so I walked forwards towards the buffet table… when an arm came out, stopping me only barely in my tracks.
"For such a skinny guy you sure are train-like," This man told me, his face having on it a slight smile that masked the grimace I could see form in his eyes along with the slight scrunching of his nose. It looked like I smelled bad. "It's the fee upfront, sir?"
I took a breath, letting my eyes take in the man before. He was just a normal slightly overweight guy in a shirt and pants.
"Right," As I reached through my pocket's looking for the jingling of spare change to help me find where exactly I'd put the money in coat pockets. From, the by now rather peeved expression that seemed to take over the other man's face, I knew that he wouldn't like me standing up looking for the money for much longer. "Found it!"
In a rush a nearly threw the tenner onto the man's waiting hand. A sigh of relief leaving my body as I came to realize that I hadn't even checked what I had on me before this. I was super lucky that It was an American Dollar and not… like a Pound or even a Euro note.
My eye was drawn onto the plates of pasta, some kind of cheese mix, so I grabbed a large bowel and filled it to the brim.
Letting the smell of the freshly cooked Italian food enter my nostrils. Usually, I wasn't the kind of person to eat food like this, but as it's been said… hungry is the best sauce.
I found a free table and started to down my meal as if I hadn't been eating right for the past few months. I was actually eating too fast as it turns out, the food got stuck in my throat, causing me to cough and punch at my chest.
Eventually, I noticed the water jug on the table and so filled the nearby glass.
A good gulp was all I needed.
"You okay?" Glancing up, I found it was the man from before that had spoken, actual concern was etched on his face.
"Yeah, " Replying sheepishly, I rubbed the back of my head. "Just ate my meal too fast, I'll be careful from now on."
It was only when the man gave me a slow nod, turned and walked away from me that I dropped my hand from the back of my head.
That was when I noticed something odd, my hair was far longer than I'd ever remembered having it; like it hadn't been cut in about a year.
Which was concerning only because I've never let my hair grow past my ears before.
"What the fuck?" I whispered, bringing my hand over to cover my mouth. Taking another bite of my meal, hoping that it would stop me from doing that thing when I start to talk out loud when I was, in fact, trying to just think.
I let my heart race, let my right leg start to bounce under the table. I was sure that this was a dream, it made no sense to be stuck in New York, with the right currency, while both somehow being in the past and having grown out my hair.
Suddenly my arm brushed up against a chest pocket as it made way towards my face to pinch my nose. When I felt what was there, my leg stopped bouncing, my heart froze.
Chuckling lowly, I crept my hand into the pocket grabbing the newly revealed phone and wallet that I had somehow not noticed in my blind panic.
I looked at the phone first, it was the model that I had in secondary school. A Samsung C3050, an old sliding phone from before Android took over, which annoyed me, mostly because if I really was in the past then even this phone might be too new for me to use with the current phone operators.
Still, I slide the phone up to enter in my home number, making sure to add the digits needed to call it when out of Ireland. That was when I got the dreaded reply from the phone.
"We're sorry; we are unable to complete your call as dialed. Please check the number and dial again, or call your operator to help you."
With my anxiety acting up more every second, I slid the phone back to disengage the call. My hands coming up to my eyes as I rested my head against my palms and my elbows against the table.
I let out a low breath, trying to calm my racing heart while my mind told me that there was a chance that my phone just wasn't covered in this country. Though the chances of that were low when I'd already been carrying US Dollars.
"What'll I do now?" I whispered, pulling lightly on a small section of my long hair at my fringe. To keep my anxiety from acting up once more, I started to think about the situation in hand from a detached point of view, like I was playing an RPG.
First, it was obvious that no matter what the Paper said earlier, that at least six months had passed since I could last recall, my hair told me that.
But the more worrying thing was that I couldn't place the date I was taken at, not what time it was in the school year even. The only concrete thing I could say was that it was Leaving Cert year. Meaning that it should be 2012.
Was I even at school still when I was taken?
I looked at my reflection on the handle of the fork I'd been eating with and found that I'd gained some stumble along my jaw, that I'd grown as far as to grow a small mustache even, something that I hadn't managed while going to school.
"Maybe it's been more than six months?"
"What's been?" The voice spooked me, causing me to jump in my seat just a tiny bit.
"Sorry," I turned to face the speaker, their apology for scaring me seemingly sincere sounding enough for me to take it at face value.
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