United States, late 1990s.
In an abandoned house, a young man sat cross-legged on the dusty floor.
He closed his eyes and focused, carefully sensing the fluctuations deep within his soul.
"Om..."
An indescribable power radiated from him. The surrounding debris trembled slightly, like something invisible had just rippled through the air.
"Whoosh~"
As he let out a long breath, everything around him gradually settled.
"Yeah... fragments of the Cosmo are still there in my soul."
"Which means even in the Marvel Universe, I can still cultivate the Cosmo."
Adrian slowly opened his eyes. That faint but familiar light deep within his soul finally let his racing mind relax a bit.
His memory still clung to the moment he'd died in the Celestial Realm... Apollo's divine light burning so bright it seared everything away.
When he'd woken up again, he was already here in this Marvel Universe, reborn as a Mutant.
He'd figured it out pretty quick—he'd probably transmigrated a second time.
The throbbing pain throughout his body reminded him of the brutal reality: he'd just barely escaped from some laboratory's clutches.
Right now, he was wearing torn rags, covered in wounds, and about as sturdy as wet tissue paper.
Being able to sense the Cosmo again was honestly the first real hope in this desperate situation.
In this dangerous world, you couldn't get anywhere without power.
And the Cosmo? That was his bread and butter. The power he knew best.
In this world without the chains of the Gods holding him back, his path to greatness was just getting started.
"Cough, cough..."
"Shit..."
A coughing fit pulled at his wounds, making him hiss in pain.
Long-term torture—the kind that'd make you forget what it meant to be human—had pushed his body right to the edge of total collapse.
Even if he could sense the Cosmo, without a body strong enough to handle it, actually cultivating it was gonna be pretty damn difficult.
"Need to find somewhere to lay low first." Adrian's eyes flickered as he quickly assessed his options.
Rustle, rustle... A weird noise from somewhere nearby instantly put him on high alert, his body tensing for a fight.
The Cosmo wasn't an option right now, but he still had his Mutant ability... Elemental Control.
Manipulating all the elements in nature—that was still his ace in the hole.
The bushes suddenly parted, and a tall, muscular man burst through. His muscles were bulging, eyes wild, like some animal that'd lost its mind.
"Wait... it's you?" The guy seemed to recognize Adrian, and that murderous look in his eyes dialed back a notch.
"You escaped from that place too?"
Adrian didn't let his guard down.
This spot was already a good distance from the lab. He'd definitely freed a bunch of Mutants when he'd made his break... but whether their captors were hot on their trail? Anyone's guess.
"Yeah, thanks to you." The man said, then basically collapsed onto the ground with a sigh of relief.
"What's your name, kid?"
Adrian didn't answer.
Right now, the priority was healing up.
With a thought, his Elemental Control ability quietly kicked into gear.
The wood elements from the surrounding plants and trees gathered toward him like they'd been called home, turning into a faint green light that slowly seeped into his body.
His dried-out skin gradually got its color back, and his wounds visibly started to fade and disappear.
The green light didn't last long.
His body was too weak, and his control over his abilities wasn't exactly refined yet. But at least he wasn't gonna die.
"If my memory had woken up a little earlier..."
"With Elemental Control, my body should've been even stronger than in my previous life."
"Too bad I woke up too late."
Adrian felt a twinge of frustration—he'd been born into this body, after all.
Because he'd died in the Celestial Realm, and crossing between worlds had cost way too much energy, his soul had stayed dormant for years.
Otherwise, he never would've been captured by those bastards and dragged to that lab.
If his consciousness had awakened when he was still a baby...
His Cosmo cultivation might've already reached the Eighth Sense by now.
The Mutant ability of Elemental Control was basically tailor-made for Cosmo cultivation.
Still, waking up now wasn't too late.
At least everything still had a shot.
The man watched the whole process in silence, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes, but he didn't pry.
"Name's Logan," he said.
"We're not really safe yet. If you don't mind, we could stick together."
"Logan?" Adrian looked up.
"Your ability's self-healing, right?"
He pretty much immediately guessed who this guy was.
Wolverine. One of the main players in the whole Mutant saga.
"You know me?"
"Probably saw it in the lab files." Logan said with a shrug.
In a place like that, Mutants tended to know a bit about each other.
"You got somewhere to go?" Adrian asked.
"Nope. But heading toward the city's probably our best bet." Logan shook his head.
Years of drifting around had made him forget what "home" even meant.
"Let's move then. Can't stay here." Adrian stood up.
One treatment—nowhere near enough to fully heal him, but at least he could walk without falling apart.
Logan didn't say anything, just got to his feet too.
The two of them walked out of that rundown house, one after the other.
Dawn was breaking as they stepped outside. Adrian took a breath—first one as a free man in a long time.
"Is the situation for Mutants always this bad?" Adrian suddenly asked.
Even though he knew this was the Marvel Universe, he wasn't sure which parallel universe it actually was.
"Pretty much." Logan's mouth twitched.
"Ever since Mutants got exposed during the Cold War, life's been rough. I've been captured more times than I can count, and because I can't die, I've just... endured it. But man, I've suffered."
His self-healing ability was both a curse of immortality and a source of endless torment.
After all, no matter how tough he was, he was still mortal, and modern weapons made controlling him pretty damn easy.
"Have you heard of Captain America? Steve Rogers?" Adrian asked carefully.
"Steve Rogers?" Logan frowned, thinking it over.
"Doesn't ring a bell. Someone with a title like that should be pretty famous, right?"
"...Yeah." Adrian's eyes flickered—he'd gotten his answer.
If his hunch was right, this was probably a parallel universe centered on Mutants.
The Avengers? They might not even exist here.
His experiences in his previous two lives had taught him one thing: when you're weak, going lone wolf is a death sentence.
He needed allies.
Especially allies with crazy potential like Mutants.
There were generally two mainstream theories about where Mutants came from: one said the Celestials did some God-creation experiments, acting as proxies for the Creator and making countless lives across the universe, including the Eternals and the Deviants. The other theory pointed to the genetic legacy of some fallen God.
Either way, it meant Mutants had an insanely high ceiling.
Especially Omega-level Mutants—their strength was basically limitless.
But looking across all the different parallel universes, Mutants' fate was usually pretty bleak.
Since Adrian was already caught up in this mess, the only thing he could do was try his hardest to break the cycle.
What waited for him otherwise was complete oblivion.
He wasn't gonna trust his fate to the Mutants' sketchy timeline resets.
That was the stupidest move possible.