Though I was driving I couldn’t help but read the notification. I really didn’t know what it meant. Did I get this skill now? Did I activate it somewhere? What was Truesight? Did I really help in the Necropolis? 

To be honest I wasn’t exactly sure why I had attacked the vampires. They sure felt menacing, and though I didn’t have memories before, I apparently did know how to fight now. I could remember hours upon hours in ninja school. Practicing techniques and learning to channel my chakra. But for some reason the latter eluded me. 

I could feel strength inside me, but not so much at my gut where chakra should be centered. And another thing was, why the hell was I trained as a ninja? That felt like some weird villain origin story trope or something for….a name eluded me, but there were a lot of people that were supposedly raised by ninjas. I simply didn’t know if I was one of those villains. 

The girl next to me fidgeted, bringing my attention from the screen. I dismissed it again and tried to look at her. She was a normal human as far as I could tell. She definitely felt different to the vampires somehow, more alive maybe. Unfortunately all she wore was a deep purple robe. It was fine material and was almost black in the dim light from the taxi’s dashboard. John and I had been introduced to her as we were escorted from the Necropolis. Told to watch over her, John was happy for the simple deal, but I think we both knew there was something different about her. 

“Whose this Myrddin guy?” I asked, eyeing John in the rearview mirror. He was reading a thick tome he pulled from his trench coat, though I wasn’t sure how I hadn’t noticed it on him before. 

“An elf, probably better to be called king of the elves,” John said. With the word memories of Legolas and elves from folklore played through my mind. I pictured pointy eared tree huggers that could shoot a bow. 

“Elves are real?” I couldn’t help but ask, then regretted it, maybe they were common knowledge. 

“Yes,” John said, his energy saying it was a normal question to ask and answer. “There aren’t as many of them nowadays.” 

“You think this guy knows where the Holy Grail is?” I asked. Still unsure why John needed it, though I had my guesses. He had another bloody coughing fit. If he had cancer like in the comics and movie, maybe the grail could cure him. 

“Most likely, though I don’t care to admit it,” John said. “The last time he showed up was around a millenia ago. Causing havoc here for King Arthur himself. Apparently Myrddin was also looking for the Grail when Arthur was.” He said the words like they were common knowledge. Closing the thick tome he put it back into his coat making it disappear. 

“I need to think,” he said, leaning his head back. No cigarette in his mouth I guessed he really needed to sleep. I didn’t much care though, still wired from the adrenaline of escaping the city of the undead, I could drive for hours. Back on a main road I was ordered to stop at the first inn we came across, so I did just that. 

The road was winding and dark. I kept accidentally driving on the wrong side, but my two passengers didn’t seem to notice or care. “What’s uh, your story?” I eventually asked when I was bored enough. The girl in the passenger seat wasn’t sleeping, but was acting like she was. Her eyes opened, her hands clenched one another as she studied me for a moment.

“I’m uh…not sure,” she said with a laugh. Her face turning toward me slightly. I could tell she was rather pale, and at least her cheeks were smooth, but the shadow of her hood didn’t reveal much of her face. 

“Well I’m Weston. I was found somewhere in the ocean with my memories gone. This guy is a magician, and we were looking for his magic hat and trusty rabbit while we tried to get my memories back.” 

“It sounded more like you were searching for the Holy Grail,” she mumbled, her face turning more toward me. I caught a glimpse of her full face then. Pale skin, I wasn’t sure if she had ever seen the sun before. She had small cheeks, a small mouth, dark lipstick on, and even darker eyes. Her hair was actually a deep black that kind of looked blue. The most distinguishing part of her was the fact that she had a very tall forehead. 

“It may seem that way,” I said with a shrug as we drove. “But we also cosplay a lot.” I focused. “How do I know what cosplay is?” I shook my head. “Doesn’t matter. So how is it being the ward of the Vampire King?”

“I don’t know about ward,” she said, shaking her head. “I have merely been having some issues. My…friends asked him for help and now he has pushed me off onto you.” She didn’t seem to like the arrangement, being with the King or with us. 

“But you’re human?” I asked. She nodded. I let out a sigh of relief. “Well sorry you have to be moved around so much,” I said. “But seriously, what was it like being in the Necropolis?” I had only seen a little, and this girl felt very much alive. I wasn’t sure how she survived. 

“Not bad,” she said with a shrug. “I had a nice room, and could leave during the day.” The sun was slowly creeping its way up over the horizon, slowly illuminating everything. “I stayed in my room most of the time anyway.”

“Is that why you’re so pale?” I asked. She eyed me, her full face turning to look at me. Ignoring the large forehead I could tell she was young. Late teens, if that. Only about five feet tall I worried she was younger than she looked. I locked eyes with her, uncaring of her mild anger. “Look at you, what are you, Irish? Living in a Necropolis doesn’t give you the right to not tan. Lets stop somewhere for the day and get you some vitamin C.” 

It took her a moment but she cracked a smile and rolled her eyes. “I’m Raven,” she finally said and memories of her flashed in my mind. 

Raven was some dark magic user from DC comics. Usually part of the Teen Titans she had a dad named Trigun, or something. Evil and hell bent on destroying the world or some such goal, she had to fight his influence. My eyes landing on Constantine. I wasn't sure how I had lucked out to run into two side characters from the DC universe, but it seemed I was rather good at it. 

“The Vampire King was nice,” Raven said. Bringing me out of my thoughts. “I think he bit off more than he could chew with me though. I talked with him a few times, as he tried to figure out what was wrong with me. But he became busy with the court. I hadn’t really met any vampires before. Who would have guessed they were so obsessed with status.”

“Status?” I asked and a screen popped in my field of view. 

“Yes, like who the kings and leaders are and-” Raven stopped, grabbing the wheel to pull it to the correct lane. 

“Sorry,” I said, willing the screen away. Sweating, I wasn’t sure what caused it, but I thought Status again and the screen came back. “Holy fuck.” I said as I began to read it, getting way more information than I expected. 

—

As soon as I was in the hotel room I said it again, “Status.” A screen popped up, answering many questions, but raising far more.  

Apparently my full name was Weston Walker. Not only was I completing quests in the DC world, but had also been to Marvel, and Invincible. As soon as I read the names I got an inrush of information about them. Marvel had heroes like the X- Men, which brought on more memories of people I had not only grown up reading about, but actually knew. Invincible was another comic book following the least invincible hero ever. 

Though I knew of the canon of the stories. I didn’t really get any information about people from the worlds, but I did have memories of talking to people in person. Like Wolverine and Peter Parker. Apparently I knew them, or they knew me. Which was more than I could say about anyone from the main story in DC. 

“What the absolute fuck,” I mumbled as I read the lines again. 

Memory meld sounded good, but I wasn’t sure why it wasn’t working. Maybe I was in the midst of melding memories when I lost everything, or maybe something went wrong. Either way, this status screen seemed to prove that I was in some sort of game. The question was, was I in the Matrix or something else?

“Exit Scenario,” I tried, but my vision didn’t change. “Exit Matrix.” I offered, but still nothing. 

“Maybe not the Matrix,” I said. I let out a sigh, reading over the screen once more. This time I tried to touch each line rather than saying them outloud, like some protagonist from a Japanese cartoon. Nothing happened, until I clicked Summon next to my pet’s name. Suddenly a blue and black furred bobcat appeared on the bed in front of me. 

“What the fuck,” I said as I stepped back from the cat. It looked up at me, it’s fur like blue flame as it took a step closer to me. 

“What?” The cat asked in a feminine voice. 

“Holy fucking mother of god,” I said as I stepped back away from the cat. I retreated to the restroom door. The cat on the bed, it was between me and the exit. I eyed the door, wishing I could head outside. Maybe to get some air or get John or Raven to try to verify that there was an actual cat there. 

“What is wrong, Weston?” The cat asked. 

“It fucking talks,” I said, flipping out more somehow. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of it. “Are you a pokemon?” Memories and names of over one hundred pokemon went through my head. But I didn’t remember any that look like this cat. 

“For the last time, no, you fuck,” the cat said.

“But you have a level. You’re level 7,” I said.

“I…Tell me what is wrong with you,” Matatabi said.

“I don’t know who you are…for starters,” I said. “Like I have no memories beyond a few days ago.”

“Again?” She asked. 

“This happens a lot?” I asked, slowly approaching the cat, desperate for answers. 

“Not always, but you have a shitty memory,” she said. “Once at the start of this whole thing, and in one of the worlds. Which was it? The water world where you had kids.”

“I have kids?!” I asked, somehow latching onto that. 

“Well yes, but….I can see this is going to take a while,” she said. “Get me some food, and I will try to explain.” 

“Food, like Pokemon food?” I asked. 

“No you fucking idiot. Get me sushi, and a steak,” she said. “Yes, a thick steak.” She laid on the bed, curling up into a ball. “Move about it, peasant. I haven’t got all night.” 

—

“So I can travel to different worlds…” I said. It wasn’t really a question. As she spoke, some memories began to flood in rather rapidly. I remembered some of my real youth and many of the other worlds. Not all of it, but enough to know she was telling the truth. 

“Yes, last I checked at least,” she said. “I was in Gotham, which thanks for destroying our apartment by the way. I was forced to live on the street for days now, luckily that ghost girl found me and Alfred was nice enough to house me.” 

“Alfred Pennyworth?” I asked, unsure of who she meant by ghost girl. There was something, but then the memory was gone. “Fuuuuck,” I said slowly, my mind blown. “I’m like really badass then, huh?”

“Nope, as I said, you are my slave,” she said.

“Yeah,” I said, knowing that was a lie. My hand was scratching the top of her head as she laid on my stomach. She had eaten her food and it was far past midday. Having checked on John and Raven they were in their own rooms and had their own stuff to worth through. 

“So what are my skills?” I asked again. 

“I don’t know,” she said. “I’m sleeping, so figure it out.”

Though I had plenty of memories, I wasn’t getting a huge inrush of experiences like I had before in the Necropolis before I fought the guards. I knew I had Hoken which was supposedly from a skill called Bond and a Spark skill I got from another super hero world. But I didn’t know how to use the skills. Also apparently I could fly, but I wasn’t sure how. Viltrumites could, and Tabi assured me I had done it more than enough, but I was at a loss for how to call upon the power. 

Staring at my screen for a long time. Day turned to night and nothing really came to me. Exhausted from my mind awakening so many memories I was asleep rather quickly only to be woken up by the entire inn shaking uncontrollably.