AN:
Story inspired heavily by 'Cruel To be Kind', '12 Steps To Omnipotence', 'Rise of an Empire' and a million and one other fanfics. If you see stuff and think that it's similar to another fanfic. it's probably because we read the same story and I liked that plot line or idea.
This will be an X-Over Story with the MC going to different realities for different purposes. Harry Potter and Stargate, Star Wars are the main ones planned for now.
BEWARE this is a 'Gary Stu, wish fulfillment, power fantasy type story.
Enjoy!
Chapter 1:
Year 1, Day 1: Earth
"Jake! Come back here!" I sigh and follow my dog's trail through the unkempt bushy forest.
We had just finished dinner as the sun went down and while for everyone it meant that they were gathering around the cottage living room to play board games for me it meant that I had to walk my dog as he was getting antsy from finishing his dinner.
There were 12 of us at the cottage and what would have been a full on party weekend only a few years ago now, with most of us in our mind to late 20s, it is a weekend of sunbathing, blazing, competitive Charades and the occasional beer pong and slap cup game.
"Dam it Jake the PUG! Where are you?" I hear him rustling and kind of see his outline in behind the creepy shadow of the trees. "Come on POOP and let's go! You know I want to put the moves on Kiera she's been giving me signals the whole day!" A friend of another friend that joined us, she's hot, single and tipsy so I plan on fucking her in the boat house…or the washroom…or fine the bedroom …honestly wherever she wants all I know she's been giving me signals the whole day today. Since today is day 1 of this 4 day cottage trip I think my chances are pretty good, I have plenty of time.
I see Jake the 'Mother fucking' PUG posting up in shitting position next to a tree. Finally!
Just as I'm about to look away and give the little bugger some privacy a blinding flash of light burst into existence along with a metal looking sphere the size of a mini cooper taking a bite out of the tree trunk right above my dog.
'THUMP!'
'SQUEAL'
'CRUNCH'
I rush towards it panicked by the frightening squeal and crunch coming from what can only be Jake. In the dark and my panicked state I barely notice the dents, glowing hot and melted spots on the sphere now firmly planted on the ground but I am stopped in my tracks a few feet or so as half of it pops open like packman.
Before I get a chance to do anything a white stream rushes from the opening assaulting my senses and burring itself in me through my nose and mouth.
The feel of the stream attacking my brain in similar to the cold paralytic sensation of slurping a slushy too fast on a hot summer day.
The brain freeze is so strong that everything goes black.
Scene Break
The first thing I notice when I wake up is the pounding headache blasting my every sense. My body feels like the morning after a night of binge drinking like I was 21 again. What the fuck did I have last night?
Right I was walking Jake and then… I panic. My heart starts beating faster and adrenalin kicks in. Jake shitting, weird glowing sphere and a white stream attacking me. Also…
"Where the fuck am I?" I ask out loud as I take in my surroundings.
The only way I can describe it is an off-white sort of grey place with illumination because there is obviously light in here and yet no shadows or source of light. Only this grey as far as I can see and nothing else.
"You are currently in the Alternate Reality Transport System nexus control." a hollow digital voice that seemed to come from within me answered.
"WHOA! What The Fuck WHO SAID THAT!?" I look around even more trying to find the source hoping it's not just me being delusional.
"I am the Alternate Reality Transport System virtual user interface." A blue holographic screen, with ARTS spelled at the top, showcasing a sort of menu appeared in front of me.
I stared at it dumbly and then I flood it with questions.
"This is so weird. Am I Dead? Are you God? Are you an AI? How do I go home? Jesus Christ how many shrooms did I do?"
"You are not dead. All vital measurements indicate you are in optimal health. I am not a God. I am not an AI. I am a virtual user interface with limited cognitive abilities. My purpose is to provide an understandable user interface for the Alternate Reality Transport System. It is proven difficult as the system was not created for use by primitive species such as… 'Huuumaaans'. You cannot return to your 'home reality' all realities where the user exists are locked out. It is a safety mechanism. Analysis indicates you have not ingested any shrooms."
Yea it definitely said the human weird as if it wanted to say a different word but had to changed its mind last minute.
Then it hits me.
"Wait I can't go home!?" and I start panicking again. "My Family! Oh NO they are going to think I'm dead! No NO! TAKE ME HOME DAMMIT! MY DOG! Oh my poor Jake what happened? I have to go home now!" with each sentence I feel myself getting more and more hysterical tears forming in my eyes running rivers on my face.
"The home reality is locked you cannot return. The canine you refer to as 'Jake The Pug' was crushed underneath the previous user's transport craft."
I break down in crying into a full on panic attack.
Scene Break
Year 1, Day 1: Shameless Universe, Chicago, USA 2019
This BigMac meal I was inhaling tasted divine.
For a brief moment my mind was finally off the fact that I in fact travelled to an alternate reality.
It took about 20 minutes to calm down from my self-induced panic attack after which I started to explore how 'ARTY', because I'm not going to call it the Alternate Reality Transport System every dam time I'm going to refer to it so ARTY it is, works.
Navigating the holographic menu, that apparently is in my head but could be projected somehow outside haven't figured out yet, using my mind was not intuitive at all. It takes practice, apparently my mind is not nearly as focused as I thought it would be it jumps from thought to thought really easily which means I accidentally jump from menu to menu or simply close it by mistake.
Oh it also doesn't help the fact that according to ARTY it was never meant to be used by 'lower beings' such as myself. And here I thought humans were the top of the food chain…
According to ARTY I am the 13th user it has ever had. It was created by a Pan-Reality entity for wait for it….transport. That's right the Alternate Reality Transport System was created for transport between realities. I swear I heard ARTY face plant when I asked it that question if a virtual user interface could deadpan. Sigh
Anyway any information about its creator or past users was locked up for security reason and ARTY would not provide any answers. Even about the last user all it would say is that entering this reality was an anomaly with a high probability of it being caused by the energy forces they were subjected right before the 'Jump'.
Due to its user being 'terminated', ARTY's words not mine, the system has to find a new compatible lifeform to bind with and I just so happen to be the closest thing possible as primitive as humans are. So YEY me!
ARTY can actually transport you to other realities, that's how I am currently wolfing down fries in a McDonalds in Chicago in 2019 in the Shameless universe. Considering it was September 2021 in my reality… it's bonkers.
Early spring 2019 here, Covid hasn't happened yet, Trump is still president. I'm looking at Reuters news on my phone andit's all so eerily familiar.
Anyway back to ARTY.I only have the basic features unlocked for use, apparently for my safety but it's mostly because I'm not evolved enough to use the.
I can teleport I think almost anywhere within an universe. I can also tag objects to take with me with a weight of up to one ton. Haven't tried 'Tagging' yet.
There is a basic feature that will turn me invisible or hide me somehow. Haven't tried it yet.
ARTY provides some basic stats on almost all objects, things and places I look at. Weight, size measurements, composition, there's a whole bunch of filters and options I can look at to calculate or analyze different things but honestly they are beyond my level to understand.
Half of it isn't even in English apparently the language doesn't have all the necessary scientific principle and word concepts to properly explain things. So I only keep the most basic measurements, composition, identifier options on. The novelty wears off pretty quick, since we are on earth all the things it shows are familiar so unnecessary and distracting.
The most important part of the analysis view is that it provides information on Alternate realities otherwise how are you going to know which reality to choose? By the way searching for a reality is not easy well at least not the ones you want exactly. I have to have a clear mental picture of what I want. My thoughts are parameters and search engine in one.
Once you zone in on a specific reality you can select it and view it as a file with a bird's eye video view of the reality. You can even do that cool zooming in and out thing you see on space videos where they make you feel small and insignificant. Like that but infinitely better and more real.
I could view a whole reality as it was happening… at any point in time. Fucking weird. I could technically travel in time but not time travel. I could enter a reality at any point in time but once opened the time would flow at a 1:1 ratio. I entered in 2019 this version of Shameless if I want to go to 2021 I actually have to wait 3 years regardless of what reality I am in or if in the Nexus control.
Infinite realities right, that's what you're thinking? Well you are both right and wrong. ARTY assures me that there are in fact infinite realities … I just don't have access to them.
Something something visualization extraction dimensional particle matrix congruence blah blah blah and bunch of sciency stuff in the hocus pocus squiggly language that I don't think I will ever understand means that I'm limited to subsections of infinite realities that my primitive self can understand or something like that.
Fuck it's complicated but basically the easiest alternate realities I can connect to are based on fictional TV shows and movies, why because somehow my unevolved brain along with ARTY consider those 'real'. So I have all of humanity's cinematic history to play with, which is great but it's not ANIME great.
The first reality I tried going to was Dragonball Anime Series, wish myself Sayan, train under Roshi and go super, every little boy's dream. That didn't work out, obviously.
Oh and there are some realities that are just straight up locked…for my safety of course what a considerate and reasonable alien reality transport system this is, ok with destroying my life but YEY for keeping me safe.
I tried finding out more about the past users or creators, nope LOCKED. ARTY did let me know that as far as it knew it was the only system of its kind.
I finished my meal and sighed. "What now?" I asked out loud to myself.
Money, power, become god emperor of the universe? Or simply drift around from universe to universe and enjoy life. Why not both?
First things first.
I have 187 dollars in cash. Credit and bank cards that don't work here or anywhere else because I obviously do not exist in any reality I could go to. I can probably stretch it for about 2 weeks if I'm thrifty.
First I need money to survive and if I'm going to go around traveling in fictional realities then I need power otherwise I'm going to get myself killed.
Money I can get by well stealing. I can make myself invisible so I can rob places or maybe I can go to post-apocalyptic universes like Zombieland and scavenge but in my current weak state I would probably get myself bitten by a zombie and that would be the end of me.
Or would I become a trans-dimensional zombie? Bring the zombie plague to all realties good job Darrow! Bright idea!
No, that wouldn't do. I need an easy way to gain power, something to at least give me an edge against common weapons and zombies.
Marvel universe? Fuck no! I'll probably get squashed by Hulk taking a piss or something.
The more I thought about it the more it seemed impossible. So I did what I do best when I'm faced with a problem that seems impossible. Procrastinate by mindlessly browsing Youtube on my phone.
Let's see, let's see 'Lo-fi hihop', listened to that one, 'Pitch Meeting ..' yup saw that one, a bunch of videos on Trump fuckery and democrats outrage yup remember those as well..
As I keep scrolling, going down memory lane and being basically brain dead a video catches my eye.
'Wonder Woman vs. Doomsday Final Battle' I let it play.
Gal Gadot is hot, so hot and she looks like what I pictured real Wonder Woman to look like. The Amazonian Princess in the Fle… and then I felt it the light bulb moment, the gears turning, flashes of a half baked planed formed in my mind in an instant.
Eureka!
And I couldn't stop the huge grin that spread from ear to ear.
I was going to become a GOD.
Scene Break
Year 1, Day 43: Lethal Weapon Universe, Austin, Texas 1983
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
Finally my aim wasn't complete shit. I put the pistol down and switched to the shotgun.
I was at 'Mac's Shooting Range' for target practice, a few miles south of Austin. I paid for a course on how to use a gun, an S&W 59, and a pump action shotgun. Mac, the owner, was an old school kind of guy and didn't ask too many questions; especially when I offered to pay double what he normally charged.
After my Eureka moment at the McDonald's I had spent about a week and a half in the 'Golden Girls Universe' 1980 as well and pretty much just robbed a bunch of grocery stores, jewelry stores and pawn shops and even two bank branches, all around the country. When you can teleport distance is not an issue.
It was a pretty boring endeavor overall, use ARTY's stealth function and wait around to find where the money is and how to open the safe, grab it then teleport out of there. Rinse and repeat.
I managed to net just north of a hundred thousand which should last me for a while.
I spent my time split between the 'Shameless' 2019 reality and my current one. The technology of 2019 let me print believable enough ID's for someone checking in 1983 as well lets me do the necessary research on the internet of the supplies I would need and the reality I wanted to go to solve my little power problem.
The not so interconnected world of 1980s let me go unnoticed to purchase any supplies and do whatever I wanted. Plus a hundred grand goes a lot further in the 80s than in 2019!
"You're getting better kid!" said Mac as I was putting way the firearms in their respective cases.
"Thanks Mac, all thanks to you." I responded while making sure to follow the safety protocols he drilled into me.
"You coming back next week?" he asked.
"Probably in a few weeks, work is picking up busy season again." I played the office manager part well, a mild mannered financial analyst wanting to learn how to shoot and finally mustering up the courage.
"Better than no work. If you're interested in learning how to handle other models don't be stranger pop by." He said. And why wouldn't he I paid very good money for private lessons.
"Will do thanks Mac! See you later" I said my good byes and headed off to the motel room I had outside of town.
The motel room was actually not that bad, decently clean, had all the 1980s amenities I needed, not too far away from Austin and most importantly I was able to rent it out for a few weeks no questions asked.
I finally had finished my research and planning but most importantly I was confident enough in handling the firearms without accidentally shooting myself.
Tomorrow was the big day. My first step towards Ascension. The biggest risk I would take so far. The most dangerous reality that I would go.
If my plan worked then everything else would be so much easier, well actually not easy but at least like a thousand times safer. I would be able to visit most of the 'cool' universes like Star Wars, or Stargate or Star Trek or hell even Mad Max and be relatively safe from sudden death.
I fell asleep a little after 1am and woke up a little after 7am. What can I say anxiety is a hell of a sleeping partner.
After a light breakfast I geared up. Guns, ammunition, tactical but practical clothing, flash lights, backpack with supplies for a few days and a copy of "How to invent everything" just in case.
I admired myself in the mirror, I looked like a lame cosplay version of a Green Beret but I was ready. My destination mapped out all I needed to do was give the order. I didn't need technically need to say it out loud, I could have just kind of 'thunked' it hard and it would have worked but since this was my first step to acquire power I thought I felt compelled to speak the words.
"ARTY jump to set reality destination 'Xena – Warrior Princess'!