Zeel rose to his feet in confusion, scanning the area with cautious eyes; his vigilance was at an all-time peak. A white hall filled with antiquated storage devices (lockers) was all Zeel needed to see to realize he was no longer underground.

Heck, he was no longer in the same part of the world, but at least, the time period had yet to be determined.

‘Early 19th century?’ Zeel thought, judging by the limited experience he had with human storage mediums of the time – lockers were definitely one of them.

Then again, he wasn’t an expert in the matter.

“This is usually Alice’s job.”

DING

DING

DING

The ping of several cyber-connections rushed into the Quantum Armband around Zeel’s arm, but he denied every form of connection: satellite, government facilities, the internet, and private networks.

If activated, the Quantum Armband would start to soak up information – information Zeel could not process all at once, so he allowed a trickle of the information to enter. Processing one bit at a time would not be an issue.

Zeel needed just enough information to answer any question about the current era, but not more information than was necessary or relevant. And he quickly found out the basics about where he was, and what era it is.

Zeel inhaled and a potent amount of oxygen rushed into his lungs, reinvigorating senses that had been dulling just a second ago. The Death Energy that was so prevalent beneath the ground was no longer present here.

Zeel could feel his Speed and Dimensional Shift Divinities twisting around his Death Divinity, finally in the ultimate stages of the merger – a very sketchy merger at that. It seemed, that being in an area thick with Death Energy was hindering the process more than he realized.

SNAP

There was the loud sound of something snapping in his mind, and Zeel felt a pain shoot through his body, specifically his eyes. The ruby-red slitted eyes of Zeel’s swirled until only dark pupils remained.

His normal Draconic Slit could still be seen if one looked closely enough, but people who were allowed to stare into the eyes of a Homo-Superior were few and far between. Regardless, this was good news for the Homo-Superior.

As soon as the change was completed, Zeel knew exactly what happened, and he couldn’t stop a smile from gracing his face. He could feel it. The last trickle of his Draconic Energy being devoured by his Death Divinity in a rash attempt to overpower his Speed and Dimensional Shift divinities.

But it was useless as both his Draconic Energy and Death Divinities were consumed and merged in turn.

Of course, Draconic Energy being as strong as it was meant Zeel could never truly be rid of it, but the energy was mixed so much with the energy inside him that Zeel was confident it wouldn’t pose a future problem unless he met an Elder Dragon.

This may likely happen given his luck.

“Where am I?” Zeel asked, not to anyone in particular, but the Quantum Armband on his arm. “What is this disturbance in the atmosphere?”

The device had already gathered a reasonable amount of information, and since the settings were set to respond only to direct queries, Zeel was stuck to a question-and-answer basis. At least, until he changed the settings, which would come after he established himself.

‘Reston High School New York, the year 2018.’

“So… new Universe and back in time, huh?” Zeel mused, ruffling his hands through his hair as the familiar silver turned into a dirty brownish-blonde. “How fucking great!” He didn’t like having to hide his silver hair all the time, but attention would be worse.

“Anything else I should know?” Zeel inquired, waving his hands through the air to try and determine what type of spatial distortion brought him to a High School.

It had to be extremely powerful since he wasn’t someone that could be spatially snatched at anyone’s convenience. The first five seconds after he arrived, Zeel clenched his butt cheeks, ready for an ambush, but as time passed by, this was seeming more of an accident than an ambush.

‘Origin of spatial distortion located a hundred meters ahead.’

With no better options available, Zeel decided to investigate further, and that meant moving towards the epicenter of the spatial distortion. And quite possibly the direction of a spatially talented Being.

‘I have been walking towards trouble a lot recently.’

Zeel punched open a couple of the nearby lockers, searching for anything useful, and when he found a basketball uniform, there was nothing else left to do but to wear whatever would attract the least attention.

A quick twist of superspeed and Zeel’s tattered clothing was gone, replaced with a basketball jersey that made him seem too cool for school. He was now confident enough to blend in anywhere.

The jersey that previously had ‘Zach’ at the back now had ‘Croft’. Zeel had already made the necessary alterations. He walked down the hall, following the natural instincts that came along with [Omni-Directional].

As a God of Travels, even partially, Zeel was sure he wouldn’t be lost – at least, not as lost as he had been traveling the Multiverse. His skill may have failed in the desert, but it also may not have.

Divinities were complicated things, a form of a mix of Natural and Artificial Magic. Doing what is best for the Divine Being even without the Gods knowing what is best for them is something Divinities do very often.

“Hey… you!”

A shout came from behind as soon as Zeel turned the corner, and with a quick sniff of the air, he detected the scent of herbal plants stagnating in the air. Of course, Zeel just continued walking, unbothered by whoever was behind. At least, that was until the person placed a hand on his shoulder.

“What are you doing with this jersey?” Clay was familiar with everyone on the team, and the name ‘Croft’ was definitely not one of them. “I know everyone on the team but you.”

Zeel sighed and turned around, examining Clay from head to toe.

“You were smoking, right?”

“What are you doing in this Jersey?” Clay asked again, ignoring Zeel’s question and instead, tightening his grip on Zeel’s shoulder – a clear threat subtly occurring.

“I bought one from the school’s gift shop as a show of team spirit,” Zeel replied, lying as easy as he breathed. “You can check Sally for my receipt.”

Of course, Sally was a made-up name, but based on the statistics Zeel had gathered, at least three people would possess the name in the entire school.

Clay raised a brow as he started to believe Zeel, but a quick once-over of the jersey made him frown “This Jersey is fine and all, but…” he pointed at the slight smudge of apple stain that Zach was never able to remove. “that stain is from a jersey my friend owns.”

Zeel paused and glanced down at the stain, internally cursing himself for not covering his tracks better. This mistake was unacceptable. This mistake was naïve. This was the type of mistake he never made, with or without his nanites.

His training on the Nameless Planet accounted for these types of mistakes. This mistake… was almost… so… HUMAN? For some reason, the thought of making a human mistake brought the tug of a smile to Zeel’s lips.

“What are you smiling for?” Clay asked, gripping his fist, ready to teach Zeel a lesson for taking something that belongs to the basketball team.

“The THC in your blood is saturated beyond acceptable levels for Medicinal and Recreational purposes,” Zeel mentioned, brushing Clay’s hand off his shoulder like it was nothing.

“What?”

“There is a 67% chance that trauma-induced during this period will fail to be recorded in the adequate synapse connections due to THC targeting coordination section of the brain.”

“Now, I really need to fuck you up because we hate nerds,” Clay whispered, throwing a quick fist at Zeel’s face, which he, of course, dodged.

Before Clay could realize what was happening, a quick slap from Zeel had him knocked out on the ground.

“I was saying that you’re so high that even if I knocked you out, you wouldn’t be likely to remember what happened.”

Zeel dragged Clay to the side, pushed the boy into a janitor’s closet, and walked a bit quicker to the origin of the spatial distortion that brought him to a high school. His plan was simple – check it out, determine if it was dangerous or useful, and then, kill it or have it owe him a favor.

At least, that was his plan until he slipped into a nearby classroom and found a girl, Henry, having an episode on the ground. Zeel’s stomach curled since Henry was releasing small pockets of distortions that nearby overwhelmed his senses.

It was not perceivable by humans, but Zeel could feel drifting in waves across the room, shaking some things as it went. How the human couldn’t notice things shaking was beyond Zeel, but he knew that helping Henry should be priority one.

Not just because she would owe him a favor, but because she could accidentally open a wormhole that would swallow all the kids in the classroom. Any other time, he wouldn’t care, but now that he was trying to be a good person, there was no way Zeel would just sit back and watch mostly innocent kids die.

Seeing that the teacher was panicking, and everyone else was about to crowd Henry, Zeel pushed his way to the front.

“Everyone, take a step back!” Zeel yelled, just loud enough to be heard by the combinations of voices.

“Hey… wait!” Shelby, the teacher, panicky stepped into Zeel’s path. “What are you going to do… we already called for a medic.”

Not waiting for another word from Shelby, Zeel pushed the teacher aside, sending the man stumbling into a couple of students, who dodged out of the way and allowed the teacher to fall perfectly into a chair.

There was a bit of bustling since it almost seemed as if Zeel had performed such an action consciously, which, of course, he did but the students didn’t know that.

“Anybody has something sharp?” Zeel asked, kneeling next to Henry’s side and placing his hands on each of her shoulders, holding her down a bit, reducing the violent shaking.

“I have a needle!”

A student shouted, and Zeel quickly gestured for the student to be pushed to the front of the crowd.

“Name?”

“Abner.”

“Okay, Abner.” Zeel pressed a point on Henry’s knees. “When I tell you to, just prick the needle right where I point… not dig, just a small prick, okay?”

Abner nodded, nervous as could be since he only offered the needle because he wanted to look cool in front of the girls in the class.

“Hey, kid!” Zeel urged, pointing at Henry’s knees once again.

“Ah… yeah,” Abner nervously replied, shooting an incredulous look at Zeel because the Homo-Superior seemed barely eighteen and yet still, he was calling Abner a kid.

Zeel leaned down and examined Henry in detail. There was not a lot he could understand about Henry from just a glance, other than the fact she smoked very often. Then again, judging by the boy he had met earlier, Zeel correctly surmised that most students smoke in this era.

“Okay… calm down,” Zeel brushed the side of Henry’s face, depositing her hair behind her ear.

The action was so intimate that a couple of the girls inside the classroom started to coo, yelling how they wouldn’t mind having a seizure if Zeel was the one to take care of them. When Henry’s spasms eased a bit, even the teacher relaxed the constant calls he was making to the principal’s office, but Henry’s relaxation had nothing to do with Zeel’s comfort.

Humans just worked that way.

Intimate contact combined with the unique electro-static stagnation of a Homo-Superior's skin automatically caused Henry’s body to interpret Zeel’s contact as if it was someone close to her.

Probably, her mother.

“GO!” Zeel gestured and pressed his fingers on both sides of Henry’s head, sending a quick electric pulse into her nervous system.

At the exact same moment, Abner pricked Henry’s knee with the needle, causing a reverse nervous system response that collided with the signal from her brain, rousing Henry out of her catatonic state.

For a brief moment, Henry managed to open her eyes, and Zeel ensured he was the first thing she saw “Welcome back my new Mbeamer,” he whispered, a contented glint in his eyes.