Marcus stood outside the engineering building, staring at the doors like they might bite him.
"It's just class," he muttered to himself. "You've been going here for three years. You know these people. This is fine."
Except it wasn't fine because everyone thought he'd died. And now he was back, alive, with no good explanation beyond "medical error" which sounded increasingly ridiculous every time he said it.
"You going in or are you going to stand out here talking to yourself all day?"
Marcus turned. Sarah stood behind him with two coffee cups, offering one.
"I thought you had Materials Science first period."
"I do. But I figured you might need moral support for your grand resurrection debut." She pushed the coffee into his hand. "Plus I want to see everyone's reactions. It's going to be chaos."
"That's not helpful."
"I'm not here to be helpful. I'm here to watch the drama unfold." Sarah grinned. "Come on. Let's go freak out your classmates."
They entered the building together. The hallway was crowded with students rushing between classes. Marcus got about ten steps before someone noticed.
"Holy shit, is that Marcus Reid?"
Heads turned. Conversations stopped. A girl Marcus vaguely recognized from Thermodynamics actually dropped her books.
"Dude, you died," someone said. Not hostile, just confused.
"Yeah, about that..." Marcus tried for a charming smile. "Turns out I didn't. Medical error. Very awkward. Sorry for the confusion."
"Medical error?" A guy from his Advanced Mechanics class pushed forward. "They said you were shot. That you didn't make it."
"I got better?" Marcus offered weakly.
The crowd was growing. More students pressing in, everyone with questions. How did he survive? What happened? Was he okay? Is this a prank?
Marcus felt the walls closing in. Too many people. Too much attention. His enhanced hearing picked up every whisper, every confused murmur.
Click.
The sensation hit. Something copied. Marcus felt knowledge settle into place—advanced mechanics principles, specific to stress calculations. He'd just copied from the guy who'd asked the question.
Not the time to be distracted by copying abilities, Marcus thought desperately.
"Everyone back up!" Sarah's voice cut through the chaos. "He just got out of the hospital. Give him some space."
The crowd reluctantly gave them room. Marcus nodded gratefully at Sarah.
"I know this is weird," Marcus said to the assembled students. "Trust me, it's weird for me too. But I'm okay. I'm back. And I'm just trying to finish my degree without more drama."
"But how did you—"
"Medical mystery. Doctors don't fully understand it either." Marcus cut off the question before it could spiral. "Look, I know everyone has questions. I don't have good answers. Can we just... try to move forward? Please?"
Slowly, reluctantly, the crowd dispersed. Students heading to class, still glancing back at him like he might disappear.
Marcus sagged against the wall. "That went well."
"Better than expected, honestly." Sarah checked her phone. "You have what, Fluid Dynamics in ten minutes?"
"Yeah. Professor Chen's class."
"She's going to lose her mind when she sees you. She gave a whole speech about safety after your... death."
"Great. Looking forward to that." Marcus pushed off the wall. "You heading to class?"
"Yeah. Text me after? Let me know if you copy anything interesting."
"Will do."
Sarah left. Marcus made his way to the Fluid Dynamics classroom, ignoring the stares and whispers that followed him through the halls.
The classroom was half-full when he arrived. Students were settling in, chatting, reviewing notes. Marcus slipped into his usual seat near the back.
The girl sitting next to him—Amy, he remembered, always borrowed pens—did a double-take.
"Marcus? Oh my god, you're alive!"
"Yep. That's the consensus."
"We heard you got shot! That you died!" Amy was staring like he was a ghost. "What happened?"
"Long story. Medical error. Turns out I'm harder to kill than everyone thought." Marcus tried for humor. "Can I borrow a pen? I seem to have lost all mine while being dead."
Amy handed him a pen automatically, still staring. "This is insane."
"Tell me about it."
Professor Chen entered the classroom. She was going through her usual routine—setting down her bag, pulling up the lecture slides—when she glanced at the attendance sheet.
Then she looked up and saw Marcus.
She froze. Her tablet nearly slipped from her hands.
"Mr. Reid."
"Professor Chen. Sorry I missed the last few classes. I had a... situation."
"A situation." Professor Chen set down her tablet carefully. "You were declared dead, Mr. Reid."
"Yeah. About that—"
"I gave a speech to the entire department about safety protocols and awareness. I used your death as an example of why students need to be careful in Gotham." Her voice was shaking slightly. "And now you're sitting in my classroom like nothing happened."
"I'm really sorry about that. The medical error thing was—"
"How are you alive?"
The whole classroom was silent now. Everyone watching the exchange.
Marcus took a breath. "Honestly, Professor? I don't know. I remember getting shot. I remember the hospital. And then I woke up and the doctors were as confused as everyone else. They called it a medical anomaly. Rare but documented survival case."
Professor Chen stared at him for a long moment. Then she laughed—slightly hysterical but genuine. "Only in Gotham. Only in this city would someone resurrect from the dead and show up to Fluid Dynamics like it's a normal Tuesday."
"It's Wednesday, actually."
"Don't push it, Mr. Reid." But she was smiling now, relieved. "I'm glad you're alive. Truly. But if you die again, I'm not rewriting my safety speech. Once was traumatic enough."
"I'll do my best to stay alive, Professor."
"See that you do." Professor Chen turned to the rest of the class. "Right. Now that we've confirmed Mr. Reid's impossible survival, can we please return to discussing laminar flow?"
The class settled into familiar routine. Lecture, notes, equations on the board. Marcus found himself relaxing, the normalcy soothing after the chaos of resurrection.
He was copying down a complex equation when—
Click.
Another ability copied. This time from Professor Chen. Marcus felt new knowledge settling in—advanced understanding of fluid dynamics, intuition for how liquids and gases moved and behaved. More detailed than what he'd learned in class, like he'd suddenly absorbed years of her expertise.
That's useful, Marcus thought. Way more useful than anxiety.
He glanced around the classroom. Thirty students, plus Professor Chen. How many would he copy from today? One? Three? All of them?
The random nature of the ability made it impossible to predict.
Class ended ninety minutes later. Marcus had filled several pages of notes, answered a few questions when called on, and successfully convinced everyone he was just a regular student who happened to survive the impossible.
No additional copies. Just the one from Professor Chen.
He was packing up when Amy approached him again.
"Hey, Marcus? A bunch of us are getting lunch at the cafeteria. You want to come? I think everyone just wants to... process the fact that you're alive."
Marcus hesitated. More people meant more potential copies. More chances to gain random abilities he might not want.
But it also meant returning to normal life. Being social. Not hiding in his apartment afraid of his own power.
"Yeah. Okay. Lunch sounds good."
The cafeteria was crowded with students. Marcus's group found a large table near the windows—eight engineering students including him, Sarah, and Jackson who'd joined them.
The conversation was exactly what Marcus had expected. Everyone had questions. How did he survive? What did being dead feel like? Was he okay? Did he have superpowers now?
That last one was said as a joke. Marcus laughed along with everyone else, trying not to think about the irony.
"No superpowers. Just incredibly lucky." Marcus picked at his sandwich. "Or unlucky, depending on how you look at it. Getting shot isn't exactly a positive experience."
"But surviving it is," Amy pointed out. "That's got to count for something."
"Sure. I survived. But three days of being dead and freaking everyone out? Not my finest moment."
Click.
Marcus felt another ability copy. Someone at the table. He glanced around, trying to figure out who. The sensation was settling—this one felt like muscle memory, physical knowledge. Someone athletic.
David, maybe? He was on the university track team. That would make sense.
Marcus tried to identify what specifically he'd copied. Nothing obvious. He'd need to test it later.
"You okay?" Sarah asked quietly. "You zoned out."
"Yeah. Just tired." He couldn't exactly say "just copied an ability from someone at this table" in front of everyone.
The lunch continued. Conversation shifted from Marcus's resurrection to normal college topics. Upcoming exams. Projects due. Professors everyone hated. The usual.
Marcus found himself relaxing again. This was normal. This was his life before dying. Just hanging out with classmates, complaining about coursework, eating mediocre cafeteria food.
He could do this. Return to normal life. Figure out his powers quietly while maintaining his regular existence.
Click.
Another copy. Different person. This felt like... language ability? Someone at the table spoke multiple languages. Marcus suddenly had fragments of Spanish, more than the basic stuff from high school classes.
That's actually useful, Marcus thought. Random but useful.
By the time lunch ended, Marcus had copied from three people total. Professor Chen's fluid dynamics expertise. David's athletic muscle memory. Someone's Spanish language fragments.
Not bad for a first day back.
Classes continued. Marcus attended Materials Science, copied an ability from a classmate—something to do with metallurgy knowledge. Then Engineering Design, where he copied nothing despite being in a room with forty students.
Random chance. Unpredictable. Just like Sarah had theorized.
By the end of the day, Marcus was exhausted. Not physically—his enhanced body handled the day easily—but mentally. Constantly aware of the copying potential. Wondering who he'd copy from next. What he'd get. Whether it would be useful or terrible.
He met Sarah and Jackson outside the library.
"So?" Sarah asked immediately. "How many copies?"
"Five total today. Mechanics from that guy in the hallway. Fluid dynamics from Professor Chen. Something athletic from David at lunch. Spanish fragments from someone. Metallurgy knowledge in Materials Science."
Sarah was already writing it down. "Five copies in one day. That's higher than yesterday's rate."
"Maybe the probability increases in crowds," Jackson suggested. "More people around equals more chances to copy."
"Or maybe it's completely random and we're seeing variance in a small sample size," Sarah countered.
"Either way, I'm building up abilities fast." Marcus sat down on a bench. "I got useful stuff today. Nothing terrible. But I know it's only a matter of time before I copy something I don't want."
"Cross that bridge when you come to it," Jackson said. "For now, you're gaining skills that might actually help you."
"Help me do what?"
"Whatever you end up doing." Jackson shrugged. "You didn't come back from death just to finish an engineering degree, Marcus. Something bigger is happening here. You're being changed for a reason."
Marcus thought about that. He'd been trying not to think about the why—why he'd resurrected, why he was enhanced, why he had this copying ability. But Jackson was right. This wasn't random. This was purpose.
He just had no idea what that purpose was yet.
"One day at a time," Marcus said finally. "That's all I can do. Go to class, copy random abilities, try not to freak out about the implications."
"Solid plan," Sarah said dryly.
"It's the only plan I have."
They sat together as the sun set over campus, three friends trying to process the impossible while pretending everything was normal.
Marcus had made it through his first day back. He'd survived the attention, the questions, the awkwardness of being the kid who died and came back.
And he'd copied five new abilities in the process.
Five abilities in one day. At this rate, I'll have hundreds in a few months. Thousands eventually.
What am I becoming?
What am I supposed to become?
Marcus didn't have answers. But he was starting to think Jackson was right.
He hadn't come back just to finish college and live a normal life.
Something else was coming. Some purpose he hadn't discovered yet.
And until then?
He'd keep going to class. Keep copying random abilities. Keep trying to be Marcus Reid, engineering student, despite being so much more than that now.
In Gotham, that was the best anyone could hope for.
Survive. Adapt. Figure it out as you go.