Gene was unmoored, bouncing around in space as reality crashed around him. He knew what the voice was saying but didn’t want to believe it. It didn’t make sense. White light from beyond the stars streamed into the space around Gene and he felt truly lost.

  ERROR! Hero System initiating protection protocols. System imprinting initiated….Imprinting complete….Implementing Restrictions….Skipping Hero System Tutorial….Rerouting…

  Crash! A chunk of the sky fell and Gene scrambled to swim through the nothingness to avoid it. The glitching voice in his head did nothing to assuage his fears. He struggled and yelled, “Architect!! Help!!”

  ERROR! Skipping Hero Profile Selections….Applying all automated choices from Power Profiles to compensate for world shift…Updating Character Profile…Update Complete…Rerouting

  “Somebody help!!!!!!” Gene screamed into the void and felt ridiculous. His head began to pound from the stress and whatever the Hero System was doing to him.

  ERROR! Congratulations! You have learned Mental Communication 1. Congratulations! You have learned Thought Sense 6. Congratulations! You have learned Psy Blast 8.

  Reality glitched around him as the strange light poured into the space, reaching out to him. His stomach churned. He didn’t know what it was, and didn't want to know. The Hero System voice continued to drone on but he couldn’t comprehend what was happening. He was dealing with concepts beyond human comprehension and those concepts were the only thing that could save him.

  Name: Gene.

  The Hero System voice spoke clearly and the space around Gene folded in on itself.

  Codename: GreyMatter. Rerouting Complete.

  A wormhole opened beneath him and he fell. Gene screamed, sound lost in the vacuum of space. He fell fast, faster than any creature should ever be able to move. Gravity took hold, gripping him tight and throttling him through the wormhole. His body stretched, twisting to inhuman proportions. His screams modulated in tone as his vocal cords took on new shapes until suddenly he was elsewhere. His body snapped back to normal and his eyes went wide.

  He floated in a vast blue and red space that blended into a swirling purple expanse dotted with multicolored stars. Gene was so enraptured by the sight that it took him a moment to question how he was breathing in the vacuum of space.

  The sudden pull of gravity snapped him back to focus. He wanted to panic when his body lurched forward but his adrenal gland, if he still had one, was completely depleted. Like an asteroid, Gene was hurtled through space towards a strange planet surrounded by four suns and a lone moon.

  Bisected by an asteroid belt, one half of the planet was covered in a shadowy mass. As he neared, tendrils of darkness reached out to him but couldn’t find purchase. He didn’t know what to think. A sense of wonder overtook him at the sight before he plummeted towards the planet near the shadowy border and began to scream.

  Punching through the atmosphere like a bullet, the sound of his screams returned as air filled his lungs. His tie whipped through the air, smacking him in the face like a whip and his arms shot up to shield his face. He was hot, burning up from the friction but the heat didn’t yet compare to what had been his fate. To his surprise, he hadn’t caught on fire yet.

  "I’m going to die,” he thought, and his screams turned to crazed laughter. “HAHAHA!! I’M GOING TO DIIIEEEE!!”

  From his vantage point, it felt like the earth was racing towards him. A screeching roar filled his ears as he uncontrollably plummeted through a flock of flying Gryphons that tried to claw him in surprise. He yelled an apology that was lost in the rushing wind but he couldn’t turn his head. He barely had time to comprehend what he saw, let alone to confirm it. This was so not the way he foresaw his first day of crime fighting going.

  His eyes snapped to a dark spire that seemed to radiate with an ominous energy in a wall. It split the landscape, lush forest decaying the closer it was to the dark veil. When he shot past it, his eyes widened in surprise.

  Tiny dots were moving, growing in size until he realized they were four people, racing away from the tower. To his bird’s eye view, they seemed to be fleeing pursuit from a band of people–no, those weren’t people. He saw five, then ten, then a hoard of twenty creatures in hot pursuit. He heard bestial cries and his eyes frantically searched the crowd. Armored in ichorous black sludge, the group’s pursuers ran on all fours. Suddenly a chime cut through his confused thoughts before a computer voice spoke.

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  Hero System Notification: New Mission…Save the injured from their monstrous pursuers

  “What?” asked Gene to no one as he looked around just before crashing through the top of the first treetop.

  Crack! A thick branch smacked him in the head, slowing his descent and sending him flipping backwards as he tumbled through the trees. The voice cut through his head with each strike.

  Hero System Notification: Toughness save failed. You have received 1 wound. Toughness save failed. You have received 1 wound. Tough–

  The message repeated ad nauseum and the world spun as he spiraled to the ground, landing with a hard thud onto his left arm, shattering it instantly.

  He thought he was dead before pain shot through him. His head ached in a way it never had before. His teeth rattled and his vision spun as he staggered to his feet and out onto a dirt road. He’d landed smack dab in the middle of the chase. Both parties seemed to freeze at his appearance but he couldn’t be sure. He saw double, then triple, then quadruple as the pain from his shattered arm compounded with the mounting migraine.

  “Help…” he cried weakly before collapsing. He looked to his left and right, trying to stand and saw a figure from both sides race towards him.

  He blinked, looked up to see something moving towards his head too fast for him to comprehend and all he could muster was, “Huh?”

  Clang! Blades clashed above his head as a darkskin man clad in silver armor parried the massive war axe that was angling to behead the fallen Gene. The creature and the man engaged in rushed combat while their opposing forces remained frozen in confusion at the shooting star who’d crashed into their conflict.

  The man in the armor parried a slash and spun to kick the creature back, his long black locs spinning in the breeze as the impact sent the creature skidding away. His red cape flowed elegantly from the back of his silver armor. Gene’s eyes focused for only a second and they locked eyes.

  “Hot,” was his only thought before a screech from the creature behind him shattered his focus.

  Gene clutched the side of his head with his good arm as the creature and its forces scrambled forward to attack.

  “Kill!”

  Gene felt the thoughts of the creature spilling into his mind.

  “Kill!!”

  With each second the thoughts grew louder. The bloodlust from the creatures flooded into his mind.

  “Kill!”

  Gene looked up at the army scrambling before him. His eyes began to glow and he answered their thoughts with his own.

  “Die!”

  Gene shouted and psionic lightning exploded from his eyes. It surged forth to the creature who’d tried to behead him, smacking into its mind before arcing from creature to creature, breaking the minds of every last one of them. Psionic lightning cascaded from his head and the young man who’d leapt to his aid jumped back. Gene’s vision doubled again and a message popped into his head.

  Hero System Notification: You have used a Power Stunt to activate Psy Storm 8. You are now Fatigued..

  Blood poured from his nose and his vision swam as the creatures collapsed. They seized as Gene struggled to maintain consciousness before a new message popped into his head.

  Hero System Notification: You have completed your mission: ‘Save the injured from their monstrous pursuers’ and have earned 1 Power Point. You have defeated a cadre of Forsaken Fleshbound. You have used Psy Storm 8. Please consider upgrading Psy Bolt 8 to unlock this power.

  He failed. When the message faded, so did Gene, falling unconscious and then falling further still.

  Hero System Message: Welcome to The Margins.

  Gene opened his eyes and all he could see was himself. There he stood in a box, like an unopened action figure, smiling blankly at himself. He was dressed in his office attire, making him frown at how depressing of a toy he would be to receive. Next to his image was a screen as tall as he was, detailing everything he knew and didn’t know about the new person he was.

  Character Profile. Name: Gene Grey, Codename: GreyMatter. Archetype: Psychic. Power Level: 8. Abilities: Might: 2, Toughness: 4, Agility: 3, Awareness: 6, Presence: 5. Powers: Psy Bolt 8 - Unleash an explosive bolt of psionic energy to damage the mind of your foe. Mental Communication 1: Project your thoughts and hear the thoughts of a willing target within 100 feet. Thought Sense: Sense the presence of minds and surface thoughts within half a mile with diminishing clarity the further targets are away from self. Unallocated Power Points available: 1.

  The system spoke when he read his profile, disseminating all that he had become in one quick paragraph.

  “This is insane,” he thought, scoffing at his ability scores. A Toughness of 4 felt laughable after surviving what he just went through but he knew there had to be more to it than that. He thought about the unused power point and wondered just how far 1 point could take him. In response, the power menu opened and information came flooding into his mind. An endless screen of options and descriptions scrolled through thoughts rapidly, causing him to scream, “Enough!”

  It stopped abruptly and his anxiety subsided. He realized this was going to take some getting used to. Still, he thought to himself, this was better than simply being returned to quintessence as the Architect mentioned. He began to wonder about all that had transpired and his mind settled on what the Hero System said to him before, when reality was breaking around him. His original destination had been destroyed. Surely that couldn’t have meant much for a world of superheroes. They were always dealing with cataclysmic events.

  He felt a twinge of annoyance now that it seemed he wouldn’t get to experience that. He sighed mentally and decided to pocket the power point until he understood more about this system and the new world he was in. He resolved to make the most of this detour and have the much needed fun he missed out on while he was alive.