Author's notes: I like superhero games, played independent ones and City of Heroes from beta to shut down. Then later I found DCUO; I enjoy it but the one part that always bugged me was the start.

You are bitten, which probably feels like a hornet or wasp sting. Your body erupts with energy or fire or ice or whatever then you're transported to an alien ship and locked inside a pod. You manage to panic your way out with a head full of someone else's memories of powers, skills, and fights only to be told you have to fight thru waves of robots to escape.

Some of these people may not have ever thrown a punch in their life or been in a fight and suddenly they have to do both.

Then when you do reach the end Superman needs your help. Superman, the number one hero on the planet, needs your help.

But you do help and are teleported off the ship. But not to a hospital but a club or police station and told, "Oh yeah, we have a situation. We need you to go out and smack gorillas or the walking dead."

So no, just no.

I wrote this in response to the start and because I had the same dream that's in the story the night after some minor surgery.

One final note; this is not intended as a wishful self-insertion. I'm in my mid-50s, completely content with who I am, and yes I've had sex and made love.

As always reviews are welcome, questions will be answered, and flames will be ignored because I already know I'm screwed up in the head.

Enjoy.

From the Beginning – A Hero

He stared at the landscape someone had painted on the ceiling of his room and wished he was in those woods right now. It was really late but he wasn't tired; he always had a hard time sleeping in hospitals. They had offered him a sleep aid but he declined. He had a problem with pills; or rather he used to have a problem with pills. An overly friendly Air Force dentist who had loaded him up after pulling all his wisdom teeth.

He got out of bed and shuffled to the bathroom, turned on the light, and closed the door. Then he pulled of his gown and looked in the mirror. He concentrated on small things at first. He was at least four feet from the mirror but he could see with perfect clarity; before the incident he would have to be inches from the mirror even with his glasses. His coloration was also off; he had been kind of pasty; typical of someone who sat in front of a computer all day, with brown hair and brown eyes. Now he looked like he had a permanent tan with red hair and green eyes. The muscles were new too; he had been in shape before. If that shape was Alfred Hitchcock, he wasn't ripped now but more solid; he actually had abs and when he moved his arms he could see the biceps.

He had avoided the 600 pound giant mutant gorilla in the room so he sighed and looked at everything; if it wasn't him he would have thought the woman in the mirror was very attractive; even hot. But now as he closed the distance and put his hands on the mirror the woman did the same thing. He closed his eyes and leaned his head against his reflection; or rather her reflection and let the memories come.

There had been the sound of something breaking and then he was on his knees. He managed to force himself up to sag against some kind of pod before he had to turn his head and vomit. He finally stopped throwing up enough to notice his dizziness had subsided as well. He sagged more against the pod drawing in deep breaths and that's when he noticed there was a voice talking.

"-worked. I'm in, and you're awake and free! Whew. Ok, I'm Oracle and we are going to get you off this ship. Look for a doorway out."

"Just give me a minute; everything is still fuzzy. Who are you? Where am I? And what's going on?" There were little flashes of light in front of his eyes but it was starting to fade and his vision was beginning to return.

"My name is Oracle; I'm kind of a guide for heroes; what's the last thing you remember?"

"Well I was-" His voice trailed off into silence. Why was it so difficult to pull up a memory?

"Ok, how about your name, do you remember that?"

He found himself nodding as the room was slowly becoming more clear. "Uh, yeah, my name is Jesse Kendal but my middle name starts with A so call me Jak, everyone does."

"Alright, where are you from Jak?"

"I'm from…" Why was it so hard to remember? He closed his eyes to concentrate and thru the fog a piece of memory popped up.

"National City, I'm from National City."

"Alright, glad you remember. My hack is still in place so we have a little time. Right now you're in Metropolis, or rather inside one of Brainiac's ships floating over the city."

He was more confused than scared.

"Uh, Ok, how did I get to Metropolis and why am I in an alien ship?"

"I don't know the how but for the why; you were bitten by an Exobyte. The explanation for that would take longer then we have time for but to cut it really short the Exobyte gave you super powers. Brainiac beamed you up to try to steal back the powers but I was able to hack in and get you released from that chamber you were trapped in and that brings us up to now."
"Wait, I have superpowers now? What kind?" "We don't know yet, I got you out before the chamber could-"
"What the FUCK! Why do I have BOOBS?" With his vision finally back he had looked around at the big room, the smoking pod next to him. What looked like a door on the far side of the room with some kind of robot walking back and forth in front of it but then he had looked down at himself. He had boobs, actually he had cleavage as the blue and gold shirt he was wearing had a zipper that was lowered just enough to show their tops. He was brought back from his brain freeze by the voice of Oracle.

"-OK. Just talk to me, what's going on?"

"I'm not me, I've got boobs." Almost in shock he reached down and put his hand in his shorts and fell to his knees when he didn't find what he was looking for.

"Jak, why wouldn't you have boobs, what's wrong?"
"Because I'm a guy. Alexander Kendal. I'm not a woman!"

There was silence for a few moments from the voice which gave him at least a little bit of time to try to calm down. To remember what he had learned in the Air Force. "When everything's exploding and the shit has buried the fan; focus on what you can do. Do that, then when you reach a safe place you can worry about the mountain of shit."

"I- I need to get out of here." He nodded to himself, "First I'll get out of here and then try to figure out what the fuck is going on."

Oracle's voice came back, "Sounds like a solid plan. Ok, we're going to run thru a few things, see if I can get a handle on your capabilities. Can you do that for me?"

"Uh yeah, what do you want me to do?"

"Ok face the wall, put your hands on it above your head and try to pull yourself up."
"Uh, ok. He tried, "Nothing happened, I'm still here."

"Ok, look up, how high is the ceiling?"

"I don't know about thirty feet?"

"Ok, I want you to look up, bend your knees, and jump as high as you can while reaching for the ceiling."
"Alright." He looked up, bent his knees, reached up and jumped. And then stopped about eight feet in the air. He was stunned into silence.

"Did anything happen?" Oracle asked.

"Yeah, I'm floating in midair, what the hell?"

"It's alright it just means you can fly. I want you to concentrate and try to go up the ceiling then down and land on the floor, just think of going up and down."

He nodded, and reaching for the ceiling again and thinking up he floated up until he gently bumped into it. Then he looked down and thought down and slowly dropped until his feet hit the floor and he leaned against the wall to make sure he didn't fall to his knees.

"Ok. Ok. That was," He hunted for the right words. "Alright I don't know what that was but damn."

"OK you're doing fine and my hack finally has given me visuals. Now for the next part; you see the chunks of crystal on the floor? Pick one up, good sized one."

He bent over and picked up a piece a little larger than his hand noticing the fingerless gloves he had on.

"Ok, got it. Now what?"

"Squeeze it with both hands until it breaks."

He shrugged and squeezed the chunk until it broke apart.

"Ok, I broke it, was like squeezing a candy bar but it's done."

"Alright, the reason I had you break that was because that is actually a very dense polymer and normally you would need to use a sledge hammer to break it. You've got enhanced strength; and the reason I wanted you to know that is I want you to attack the pod."
"Wait, attack the pod, why?"

"You're not the first person I've helped out these pods; I need to see what type of weapons you might have."

"In what I'm wearing I don't have any weapons; unless they're miniature in some of these belt pouches."

"Trust me, a lot of heroes are able to store weapons, well we don't have time for that either, so take a step or two back from the pod and attack it, concentrate on trying to damage it."

"Alright."

He stepped back made a fist and swung knowing he wasn't close enough when an energy beam came out of his fist and blew a hole in the pod. He stepped back, looked at his hand then back at the hole. This time he shot both hands towards it and two beams, one from each hand, came out and blasted the pod.

"Those are energy beams. You'll have a good range on those. Ok, so are you ready to get out of here?"

"Oh hell yes, let's go kick that robot's ass."

He smashed the first robot with ease but then Oracle announced that the ship had broken her hack and they knew he was free. Then the door opened and three more robots rushed in.

After that there was a lot of fighting and running, or flying in his case. He smashed a couple of crates with the items inside disappearing into what she called null storage space. The pouches on his belt being a lot bigger on the inside then the outside; something he could ask Martian Manhunter to explain when he was off the ship.

Then finally in the gun room he had to fight a big robot but by that time he had learned that the green barrels contained some kind of healing something and he was able to use those to win. Then Superman showed up along with a crap ton of robots but eventually they were stopped with Superman telling him to get to a transporter pad. He stumbled to one and suddenly felt like he had been turned inside out. He had been teleported into what looked like an ER and his last sight were some people in scrubs rushing towards him before darkness took him down.