A/N: Welcome to my newest weekly story! This fic will update once a week on Tuesdays for the foreseeable future!
-x-X-x-
He's desperate. There's no sugarcoating that. If anything, desperation is better than the alternative, because the alternative is despair. And it would be so, so easy for Lucas to fall into despair. After all, he IS a resident of Earth Bet.
The world was in the shitter. There was no debating it, really. Between Endbringers destroying cities every few months, S-Class Threats either creating their own personal fiefdoms or roaming around in murder bands like the Slaughterhouse Nine, and an increasing bent towards totalitarian rule all across the globe as Parahuman Powers became more and more unmanageable… everything sucked. Everything.
And the worst part was, Lucas was never going to be able to do anything about it. He was never going to trigger with any sort of Parahuman Power that might have allowed him to put his finger on the scales. Why? Because he wasn't capable of it. He didn't have a Corona Pollentia, that part of the brain that signaled whether you would ever gain powers or not.
Admittedly, reading between the lines on PHO and other parts of the Internet, triggering wasn't something that you really wanted to wish for anyways. It wasn't something most Parahumans liked to talk about, but there was enough out there for Lucas to know that the day you gained your powers was usually the worst day of your life.
… Maybe it was short-sighted or stupid of him, but honestly… he didn't care about that. He'd gladly take a single bad day if it meant coming out the other side strong enough to do something about the state of the world. Because as things currently stood, he'd had plenty of bad fucking days… and nothing to show for any of them.
So yeah, he was desperate. And deep down inside, he didn't exactly expect this to work. But hey, when everything is shitty and you find a weird maybe magical tome in the back of a used bookstore, then you've gotta see what it might be able to do, right?
He'd mostly just been looking for something he hadn't read before when he'd come across the tome. Big and thick and heavy, it had been hidden under a stack of paperback novels. Lucas had known it was special from the moment he'd laid eyes on it, as at first he couldn't read the lettering… and then right before his gaze, the front of the book had transformed, his vision feeling like it was swimming for a moment before it all crystallized into words.
Summoning Your Heart's Desire. That was the title of the book, apparently. And upon looking inside of it, Lucas had found all sorts of diagrams, ritual circles, and the blueprints for… bringing forth something from beyond his world.
To be fair, he still didn't know if it was just a misplaced piece of tinkertech or not. But the chance that it was actually real and that there was real, potential magic to be had in a world of terrifying pseudo-science and superpowers… well, Lucas had to give it a try, right?
So here he was, running his fingers over ancient, weathered pages and staring at the ritual circle he's made in the floor of his small apartment. He'd ripped up the carpet in order to expose the wood underneath, a definite violation of his lease. If it was discovered, he had no doubt he'd be evicted as soon as possible… but fuck it, what was life without a little risk, right?
Setting the candles at each point that the book specified, Lucas lights them one by one, his breath hitching as the circle itself almost seems to glow under the candlelight.
Admittedly, the tome didn't actually say what or who he might be summoning. 'Summon Your Heart's Desire' was both the title and the closest to a concrete answer he could get. The ancient book was heavy on explaining how to do everything, but not exactly what he was doing or what to expect if he succeeded… other than that he could 'make a deal' for 'unimaginable power'.
That sounded pretty damn good to Lucas, even if part of him was afraid that he wouldn't have enough to trade. What sort of eldritch, non-human entity would he be summoning forth? And would it even be willing to make a deal with someone as worthless as him?
Such insecurities had certainly kept him awake at night ever since he'd bought the tome, but they hadn't stopped him from reaching this point all the same. And now… one way or another, Lucas was going to find out what the tome could really do.
He starts the chant as he finishes lighting the last candle. He begins the summoning ritual, his voice echoing through his small apartment. Lucas makes sure not to shout, not wanting to get any noise complaints from his neighbor, but he also doesn't dare be too quiet for fear that whatever is on the other end of this 'call' won't hear him.
Until finally… finally, something seems to happen. The candle flames all simultaneously flare up a foot into the air and Lucas's breath hitches as the ritual circle actually does start to grow a malevolent red that quickly turns into an inky black. It's actually working…
No sooner have those words passed through his mind than the air in front of him splits open. It also looks red for a moment before turning black and Lucas finds himself staring into what feels like an endless abyss… but not an empty one. There are little prickles of light in the hole in the air, like stars… but not.
Lucas shivers, feeling colder all of the sudden. In that moment, he knows he's not alone. There's a presence sharing space with him now, a presence that turns its attention firmly onto Lucas. It's worked, yes… he's brought something truly unspeakable into this world.
… So what though? How many unspeakable monsters already exist on Earth Bet anyways? How many people die every day at the hands of fucking psychopaths with too much power? Calming his rapidly beating heart, forcing himself to straighten up, Lucas stares into the hole in reality. He stares into the abyss… uncaring of whether it stares back or not.
"I want to make a deal."
There's a brief pause… and then a shift from the presence. Curiosity washes over him and Lucas has to set himself in place to avoid stumbling backwards. This entity, whatever it is, is so powerful that even the vaguest, gentlest of emotions is enough to feel like a physical blow.
Still, the curiosity might as well have been a direct question for how clear it feels. Swallowing hard, Lucas explains.
"I want… I want the power to help people. I want to be able to make my world a better place. What do you want in return? I'm not picky. Everything I have is on offer, even if it's not much. My soul, maybe?"
It was the common thing, right? Sell your soul for power. Whether it was a demon or something else unknowable and eldritch in nature, that was how it usually worked. Lucas barely had enough in his bank account to pay rent and he didn't have anything else of value to his name, so his soul might be all he could offer.
Only… he gets the sense that the being he's in contact with doesn't want his soul. Or at least, they don't immediately take him up on his offer. Is it really not enough? Lucas grimaces, opening his mouth to try again… only for another wave of something to buffet him. Suggestion.
It takes him longer to parse what's being 'said' this time than last time. The concepts being thrown at him from the other side of the tear in reality are… more complex this go around. After a minute or so, however, he thinks he's starting to get it.
In his mind's eye, he visualizes his world… and a world next to it. Seemingly the same from a distance, they couldn't be more different from one another when one got close up. All because only one of the two worlds had been plagued by the rise of Parahumans to the extent it was.
Earth Bet… and Earth Aleph. Earth Aleph was… it was the version of Earth without Endbringers. They still had some Parahumans, or 'capes' as was the common parlance, but they were much weaker than the average cape on Earth Bet was. The starkest differences between Earth Aleph and Earth Bet were that of culture.
Earth Aleph was not a dying world and one could see it in the entertainment they produced that Earth Bet received through Professor Haywire's monitored micro-portal. Earth Bet, on the other hand, didn't have time for the sort of art that Earth Aleph could produce.
Lucas would be lying if he said he hadn't enjoyed video games, movies, tv shows, and more from Earth Aleph. A lot of them provided a way to escape the horrors of his own world, a slight reprieve from the darkness that pervaded every bit of life on Earth Bet.
However… however, what he's getting from the thing he's summoned now is an offer that Lucas struggles with mightily. Because from the 'sound' of things… the eldritch entity he's summoned wants him to 'give it' Earth Aleph in exchange for being granted the power to help Earth Bet.
"You want… you want a whole planet?"
His incredulity is met with amusement that once again threatens to knock him on his ass. As well as a sort of… sensation like something is being pointed out. To put it in simple terms, Lucas is asking for the power to help his planet… so why shouldn't the price be another planet in return?
On the one hand, that kind of made sense. On the other hand…
"I mean… do I even have the right to give you something like that? I don't understand, its not like either world belongs to only me… Earth Aleph especially."
He'd been ready to offer everything he owned in exchange for power if this worked… he just hadn't thought 'everything' would also include what he didn't own as well. And yet, the response he receives makes it clear that that's not an issue.
Something about being the first person to summon this being here has given him a whole lot of leeway in terms of negotiations. He's not really selling Earth Aleph… so much as selling access to Earth Aleph, giving this eldritch entity access to Earth Aleph to do as it pleases going forward.
Deep down, Lucas knows he still shouldn't say yes all the same. He'd be selling out an entire world of people, many of whom were innocents who hadn't done anything to deserve whatever this eldritch being had in mind for them.
And yet… and yet, they also hadn't done anything to not deserve it, had they? Earth Aleph had never really tried to help out Earth Bet. They hadn't bothered trying to send aid or anything substantial in all the years the two Earths had been in contact with one another. They'd basically sent over artwork while Earth Bet burned and burned.
He can't help but feel a certain bitterness towards Earth Aleph, all things considered. They didn't have to deal with nearly as much shit as Earth Bet did so… so why not? Why not accept? It would only be balancing the scales, in the end.
Earth Aleph might be worse off in the long run but if Earth Bet was better off, wouldn't that be alright? At least one world would come out ahead… and the fact that it would be Lucas's Earth that did so was certainly a big factor in his decision making.
"Alright. I accept. You have my permission to do whatever you want with Earth Aleph… in exchange for granting me the power to help make Earth Bet a better place."
There's a brief pause… and then Lucas finally IS knocked on his ass by the sheer jubilance that radiates from the star-filled rip in reality in front of him. He gasps as he's tossed backwards, hitting his apartment floor rather hard and no doubt bruising his tailbone in the process.
Then, his mouth opens in a silent scream as he feels something pushing into his head, into his body, into his very sense of self. He'd asked for power… and the being is giving it to him.
Funny, Lucas hadn't even known for sure that he had a soul to offer when he'd first done so minutes before. But he definitely knows that he has one now, because he can feel the changes being made to it. Whatever is being done to him, it's being done down to the very depths of his soul itself.
Its ultimately too much for a human to handle. And so Lucas blissfully passes out, completely and utterly overwhelmed.
-x-X-x-
When he wakes up some time later, the tear in the air in the middle of the ritual circle is gone. The candles have also been extinguished without fully burning out their wax. The ritual circle remains though and so does the tome, evidence of what he has done.
More than that, as Lucas sits up and takes stock… he can feel it. A sense of what he's now capable of. The powers that he sacrificed an entire planet for. And frankly… he's a little underwhelmed at first.
From what he can sense, he's stronger and faster and more durable than your average human now, but not by much. He wouldn't give himself more than a Brute 1 or 2 rating at most. Not exactly the sort of thing someone was going to change the world with.
Luckily, the physical changes are nothing compared to the real power once he starts digging deeper. A power that, if he's understanding it right, leaves his growth potential… uncapped.
Essentially, he can make deals with people. That's it, that's the whole thing. Except not really, because it's so much more than that. The eldritch entity that he'd sacrificed Earth Aleph to has given him the exact same ability it had used with him. He can now offer people their heart's desire… in exchange for power. The more people he helps, the stronger he will become, and the more people he will be able to help.
A wide, wicked grin spreads across Lucas's face as he stumbles to his feet. Instead of cleaning up the mess he's made of his apartment floor, he heads straight for his ancient computer and boots that up first. After all, now that he has the power to make a difference… he knows exactly who he's going to offer his first deal to.
-x-X-x-
A/N: So yeah, this is just the start! Got big plans for this fic, but this first chapter might feel a little vague (that's on purpose lol)
The Vote:
[ ] Stick with Lucas POV - 21%
[X] Switch to ??? POV - 79%
-x-X-x-
If you'd like to read more of my work not seen on this website, check out Hentai-Foundry.com and QuestionableQuesting.com where I have over a thousand stories!
Thanks for reading!