Fate/Rebirth: Marvelous Weapon Wielder

Author's Note: Yes I pushed the official time of the Incredible Hulk movie back a few years because it and Iron Man happening in the same year make very little sense and this was better for the story as well.

Outside of character creation the "game" aspect here will be very light. Almost entirely based upon giving Shirou a kind of 'overhead' view of how his skills are developing and which ones he might be able to unlock or develop if he tried.

Chapter 1: Rebirth

The last thing Shirou Emiya remembered before the Void was Archer killing both him and Gilgamesh in a suicide maneuver he had pulled to trap the First Hero and allow that killing blow.

Right in front of the Grail.

Which probably caused a time paradox. Or explained the Void.

Capital V, there was something mystical about this Void.

Which became really obvious when writing popped up in front of his face.

'So you died, and you died in such a way we literally cannot have your soul continue existing in our Universe, neither through Reincarnation nor the Afterlife. My associate Alaya would like to say, "How the fuck did he do that?" more or less. Less really, I got the sense of humor in our Universe as far as Cosmic Powers go.'

Shirou quickly rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't hallucinating, he did believe the dead part. And the died in too weird a way to be dealt with part. It was a higher being having a sense of humor that got him.

"So umm...what now?"

'Well I'm shunting your soul off into another universe of course! But it's a nexus universe so I'll have a little leeway with how I do this, which is great because I get to have fun. So I'll be turning your next life into a game of sorts. I'll provide you with a bunch of options, you'll pick from them, and you'll continue to have some game-style choices along the way. Nothing crazy like save files or pausing reality, but you'll be able greater control and flexibility in how your skills and powers develop. So here's the interface, have fun and keep me entertained!'

"Whoa, hey, who are you?"

However Shirou was not answered as another box popped in front of his face. This one with big red letters saying 'New Life+'.

"And...he's gone. Great, what did I get myself into now?" With nothing better to do his astral self reached out and touched it.

'Total Achievement Points: 10,000'.

And below that were a bunch of black boxes with only the top one revealed.

'Choose an Origin'

Hitting that he was given a slew of options: Genetic Experiment, Mutant, Inhuman, Mystical Apprentice, Average Joe, Atlantean, and Legacy as the ones not in completely black boxes.

Clicking into them most had sub-types. For example Inhuman had 'Earth-born', 'Attilan', and 'Royal'. However both Attilan and Royal cost more than the ten-thousand points he had. Inhumans were also described as being super powered people that were part of some ancient alien genetic experiment so he now new this new universe had aliens. Which was pretty wild for him.

"Rin would freak over aliens though," he mused to himself as he kept looking.

Mystical Apprentice seemed pretty solid of a choice, but it wouldn't leave him many points for whatever was in those other blacked out boxes further down the line, costing a full eight-thousand.

In fact the most cost effective to benefit option he saw was the Mutant one. Under Legacy there were options to be a second or third generation mutant, but those were costly. So he picked a normal Mutant, well as normal as that sounded.

It took him to a new screen titled, 'Mutant Powers'.

And the list was crazy. He had everything from 'Change Appearance' to 'Terrakinesis' for varying costs. However in bright gold at the top he saw exactly what he had been hoping for when he'd read the Mutant power description.

'Unlimited Bladeworks: Past Life Discount: 2,000 Points'

However reading the description it appeared that he would have to start back from scratch with it in his new life. Having no blades and no ability to manifest the full Reality Marble. But he could do that, plus it seemed like his Tracing and Object Reinforcement were considered bundled abilities, which made sense as Super Speed got Friction Resistance and High Velocity Impact Resistance for free.

So down to only half his starting points Shirou kept moving through character creation. He picked to speak a bunch of languages, not have any genetic defects, look generally like he had in his past life, and picked 'Upper-Middle-Class' as his upbringing because he didn't really want to be a rich kid but he figured not having to scrounge for food doing odd jobs would allow him to spend more time learning about the weird universe he was going into.

He spent most of his remaining points picking what he felt were the crucial, 'Skip Infancy' and 'Skip to Grade School' features.

It meant he had to forgo doing a geographical choice and left that to random, but he did not want his mind stuck in a baby's body for years. Even if he had gone back and given up a few languages he wouldn't have been able to pull off any more interesting countries than Italy for geographical choice. Japan was a full thousand points and he hadn't even gotten a discount like he had on his Bladeworks!

And then Shirou got the information dump.

He woke up with a gasp, remembering somehow that it was his first day of Kindergarten in...New York City?

His name was Shirou Morita, his mother had wanted a more traditional name for him.

He was born in 2000.

And his dad, Jim Morita Jr. was a teacher at a nearby high school.

And his mom, Cho, was missing presumed dead when...a giant green monster called the Hulk and a big spiky one called the Abomination had rampaged through Harlem just a few months back.

Which made the year...2005.

His grandfather was a US Army veteran and...oh man his head hurt.

At least he wasn't an orphan? He had a father. Which he supposed wasn't too different than last time.

Oh it turns out he had just been enrolled in a local karate class because his dad thought it would help him deal with the grief because he had been acting oddly since his mother's disappearance/death.

That was good, that could help with any personality shift from his memories dropping into his five year old self instead of being here the entire time.

He tested out his magic and...no circuits. Well that was expected apparently he was something called a mutant? But his five year-old memories had never heard of a mutant, perhaps they were secretive?

"Okay, so I've gotten myself into something really weird here haven't I? And the being said it would feel like some kind of game?"

He hadn't played too many games, video or board or otherwise, in his original life. But he'd repaired a lot of Gameboys and Playstations and often the kids with them would invite him to play afterwards and he'd usually be polite and give things a small go.

"Umm...menu?"

Nothing, perhaps it was intent based?

"Menu," he said like a command, and surely enough he had a list of options to pick from.

"Powers, looks promising!"

What that tab pulled up was a sea of floating black spheres in front of him with just one a greyish color saying 'Mutant Ability: Unlimited Bladeworks'. He tried to tap it and got a message, 'Error: Storyline Unlock Required'.

Which he gathered to mean it would only unlock when most convenient (or least with his luck).

So he wouldn't be tracing and copying weapons any time soon.

It was time to get ready for school he guessed.

School was a bit of a breeze and rather boring. Shirou almost wished he had been able to skip straight to Middle or High School, but those point costs had been huge.

So through Grade School Shirou developed a bit of a reputation as a kind of quiet prodigy. Who taught himself to speak four languages with learning CDs he asked his dad for, as an excuse to explain knowing them. And as a kid that packed a mean punch to bullies. He'd actually had his dad called to the school office once over defending a kid that was being bullied by misusing his karate skills on the bully.

Which, by the way, those karate classes had unlocked a Power nodule called 'Martial Arts'. It was only the first power nodule he could develop skills in. After a science fair in the second grade where he had created an entire working ham radio out of scrap he had unlocked the Engineering nodule, which had confused him about why it was considered a power.

Well, it had confused him until he had been home watching the news after school later that year, when the billionaire Tony Stark revealed himself to be the Iron Man, a man flying around in a high tech suit of armor, on national television.

His grandfather, Jim Morita Sr, had been visiting from Fresno when it happened and said something that struck Shirou as strange.

"It's happening again, the men of legend. The men of mystery. They're returning."

It sounded haunted. And it haunted Shirou's mind every time he saw one of Iron Man's exploits for the next few years. Because Tony Stark didn't really strike him as a true hero. He wasn't really an Ally of Justice.

And that angered Shirou, he was reckless and a bit selfish with his power as both a billionaire and a genius.

And so Shirou tinkered, and developed that engineering power as well as his martial arts power.

And by the time he was eleven he had made a good useable taser out of pawn shop junk and was almost a black belt.

Because Iron Man had inspired Shirou, even if it was through anger, to someday become a hero for this world.

And then on May 4th, 2012, Shirou's twelfth birthday, everything was set into motion.