Mage King in Amalgam-Verse (Marvel) (DC) (HP)

1 - Mastery

{St. Peter's Orphanage, London}

{30th July 1986}

Worn out clothes. Peeling drywall. Four beds in one room. As the morning sunlight hit his face, waking him up to yet another day, Matteo sighed helplessly. As an orphan with nothing to his name, he definitely wasn't living a life of luxury... but even if he was dirt poor, Rachel Myers more than made up for it, the lovely caretaker that she was.

Matteo would take her over most parents. And while living with three other kids was a bit of a hassle, he was mature enough to get along with them.

There were certainly worse places to live.

"Eight years..." Matteo muttered, slightly exasperated.

Tomorrow was his eighth birthday.

Marking eight years since his 'reincarnation.'

Now, this wasn't something that he had asked for. In fact, Matteo had no idea as to why he had reincarnated. One moment, he was Matteo– 19, slightly above average college student– and then after a very inopportune house fire, he was, well, Matteo.

Having the same name in both lives was convenient. In fact, he had the same black hair and blue eyes, and the same overall appearance. It was a bit hard to tell, but Matteo was pretty sure that he had also been 'beautified.' His skin most certainly wasn't this flawless last time around.

'...Almost like someone purposefully reincarnated me.'

But even so, Matteo didn't have any cheats. No quests. No 'message from God.' Nothing.

Well, it wasn't all bad. Even if he was a penniless orphan without cheats, and he was British of all things, time was quite literally on his side. Instead of being born in the early 2000s like in his previous life, Matteo had been born in 1978.

He hadn't exactly memorized the future, but he was still certain that he could use being born in the past to his advantage, somehow. Investing in Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, just to name a few. And if that didn't work out somehow, having the mental constitution of an adult would certainly give him a headstart.

Well, two crucial pieces of information had brought that plan to a screeching halt.

Stark Industries and Wayne Enterprises.

When Matteo first learned that he shared a world with both of these companies, he nearly had a panic attack. Marvel and DC were both death worlds on their own, but he had ended up in a combination of the two. He honestly didn't know how that was going to work– 'Are Thanos and Darkseid both here? Are there 52 universes, or are they infinite? Or is there just a single one? Do I have to worry about the New Gods, the Celestials, or both?'

Matteo eventually decided just to not dwell on it. He didn't have any powers, (besides reincarnation, apparently,) and if he was being honest, he wasn't that talented. Matteo wouldn't stand a chance against the likes of Hydra or The Light, or even just... Robin. By himself.

Not to mention that, there were so many different fucking versions of both Marvel and DC, that his knowledge of what might maybe happen was most likely worthless, if not downright detrimental.

No, Matteo was just a background character, in the background, doing background things. He just had to not think about how fucked the world probably was, and just live his own life. Graduate early, get a degree, buy the right stocks, and settle. That was the goal.

'And maybe, hopefully, I won't be snapped out of existence in the next few decades.'

"Kids! Breakfast!" Ms. Myers called from down the hall.