Chapter 19 - Huh...

Tyler Riddle

I woke up naked in a bathtub filled with water. Everything felt wierd, like when you sleep the wrong way on your arm and you can't move or feel it. It's just there and all floppy, making you wait for blood to flow through it again, except it's my whole body. 

Once I could actually move my neck, I took a look around the bathroom. It looks kinda girlish, so it's likely Gwen's. It took me a couple of minutes until I could move the rest of my body. Even though I could move, I still had these small wierd twitches like I couldn't control my body properly. My electricity, super strength, and enhanced senses seemed to be working fine, if a bit jittery. 

I absorbed the bath water, turning my hair and skin dry, and got out of the tub. I formed a set of simple clothing oveyself and walked out. Yup, that was Gwen's bathroom alright. I can hear Gwen downstairs running a blender downstairs, so I make my way to the kitchen.

Gwen's in an oversized white shirt with her nipples jutting through the fabric. I can't tell if she's wearing anything underneath, but judging from the smell…probrbaly not. 

"What are you making?" I ask.

"Oh, your awake. It's just some green tea smoothies for us. I didn't know what was going on with you. I couldn't take you to the hospital, not with what was going on, and I was sure you'd be fine, but a nice smoothie can't hurt. Right?"

"What exactly happened? I don't remember much except that I was punishing you."

"Well you blacked out and went unresponsive. I looked at you and there was these black, white, and grey worm-like swells along your veins. The eventually subsided, and then they came back, but you were emitting really bright light out your eyes and mouth and your skin was black like the night sky. Then you appeared normal, but you got super hot in some areas and super cold in others. Some parts of my bedsheet shattered like frail ice, while others shriveled up and became deformed. I figured I could minimize the effects with a water bath, so I started one. When I came back to where I left you on the bed, you were twitching. But it was more like you were changing positions rapidly. There wasn't any transition. I dragged you into the bath, stripped you, and then you started to calm down. I waited for a little bit and you were still breathing normally, so I came down to make you something for when you woke up."

"How did you know I'd wake up." I ask, scooping her into my arms.

"Of course you'd wake up! How could you not when you're so extraordinary!" She said it cheerfully, but I saw a tear drop from her eyes that begged me not to pursue the topic.

"Okay, I'm sorry for scaring you Gwen." I apologized as I kissed her tear away. She leaned her back into me to hide her face.

"There was never a doubt in my mind. Anyway, how did Nia even handle you? It's so big." She asked, changing the subject.

"Women can stretch a lot, even if it is all at once. Plus, she had a LOT of lubricant to help it along. She didn't seem to feel any pain at all."

"I don't know. We might need to go slower. It looked pretty intimidating."

"Of that's what you want, but you'll be fine either way. But you don't need to worry about that for now. You're still being punished. It's fine if you want to be a little dominant, but making me unconscious of the act is pure evil."

"Oh come on! Nia was even more violent than I was, and she got some. I'm your girlfriend for goodness sake!"

"It's the forcefulness that is the problem. She got her punishment already."

"For a couple days!"

"Well you'll get one day less of probation for being my girlfriend. And one request."

"I want to live with you! You got a new place. I know Nia's been sleeping with you. She radiates happiness at school, dragging your smell everywhere. It's like she's running her closeness with you in my face!"

"Will your parents agree?"

"My mom will be more than happy for me to move in with you. You're handsome, kind, smart, and you have a source of income. You're her dream son-in-law."

"And your father?"

"My mom will make him agree."

"The resemblance between your character and her's seems to be pretty similar."

"Yeah. So are you gonna tell me about the superpowers?" Are you a demigod?"

"Oh no, God no. It's a bit complicated. Do you want the short or the long version."

"The long version. I want to know everything, but I don't need the details just yet."

[AN: just a big recap here. You don't have to read it if you don't want to.]

"Okay…. Well, to start off, the Multiverse is real. Magic is real, but it's just very advanced science. Not only is the Multiverse real, there are multiple Multiverses. They form what is known as a the Omniverse, a collection of Multiverses and Universes that have a creator or creators in some way or another. I come from a Multiverse or Omniverse who's creator was the Structure itself. It existed simply because it must have. I lived on a planet, in a galaxy, just like this one, same time period and history, but there was no magic. If there was, it died out or disappeared long ago. our consciousness had only a small effect on the world around us. I was a pretty smart kid, and I had a bit of empathy in me, so I invented things to help people. I cured diseases, waged wars on wars and poverty, but the world wasn't exactly happy about it. I carried on, but as the push back hot worse, I buried myself in the culture and art that the world produced. There was this old studio who produced comics, called Marvel. It was full of superheros, gods, demons, monsters, aliens, all kinds of things. I continued absorbing the medium, but even though I stepped out of the limelight, some of the most influential people in my world held grudges and then my parents were murdered. I had an assassination attempt on my life during their funereal. I went wild and killed about a dozen attackers. I don't even remember much of the event, but when the media started hounding me about the attack, I broke. I decided to leave the world, finally realizing that I couldn't save a world from itself if it didn't want to be saved. The ln I hoped myself up in a lab built with what little money I had. My bank accounts had been frozen, hacked, or just plain closed at that time. I built a device that would tear through the fabric of reality for a short moment in time, and a sort of metaphysical shuttle that would lead me to the Marvel Multiverse. I got, here, in New York, but I was turning into dust. The previous Tyler Riddle was bleeding out in an alleyway, essentially dead. I somehow took his body and I was healed. That was about two weeks before you met me. I discovered that I can absorb, create, and edit matter. Then I used my knowledge of the Marvel Universe to get myself bit a special radioactive spider that gives me spider-like abilities and it allows me to produce electricity. Yesterday I realized that I need more power to live comfortably and so I created a virus that mutated my DNA using a technique from my world called CRISPR to mutate my body. The changes started a couple hours ago, which is why I blacked out. That's it."

[AN: Recap end]

"Wow....my brain hurts….but I guess I can just learn along the way??? It sounds like your the Tyler I fell in love with though."

"That would be for the best. Listen. I have to go back home, check up on Nia. Why don't you relax and rest. I'm sure you're pretty tired. We can talk to your parents about you moving in with me tomorrow maybe." I tell, her giving a kiss goodnight and heading out the door.

"I'll move most of my stuff over tomorrow. I just need to let Mom know. Oh, and don't forget your smoothie!" She says, handing me a thermos at the door 

"Night' my lady." I said, giving a bow.

"Night' knight."

=÷=

The walk home was pretty peaceful. The smoothie was pretty good. It tasted of blackberrys, pomegranate, and I think grapefruit. Gwen does know me well, even if I hardly eat around her. 

I made it home at 2:40 in the morning. Nia was there, sitting at the door, waiting for me, but she was asleep. I picked her up and brought her over to the blanket fort that served as our temporary bedroom. Nia made it, probably because she knows I like enclosed spaces. Man, do I love her. I tucked her in, but I didn't go to sleep with her. I wasn't in the mood for sleeping, I had more pressing issues. 

I sat in one corner of the fort and inspected my body for changes. From what Gwen described, they should be pretty obvious, but I didn't see anything oblivious. That was until I looked at my DNA. It didn't look like DNA. It didn't even look like it had any molecular structure at all. It acted like DNA, at least when it was being read , but where a helix should have been, there was only a swirling mass that kept changing colors. I could move it, make it act how I wanted it to. I could even make more or less of it, but it took energy just like my matter abilities did. I'll need to take a bit to play around with it. It seems pretty bland for a mutant power, but it's connected to my inherent abilities so we'll see.

=÷=