(Union Glacier Base Camp, Tuesday, January 1st, 2036)

I heard fireworks shooting in the distance. Not the big ones you’d find in a city, the little ones that families might light off. I also felt a cool breeze blowing over my skin. I opened my eyes to see the darkest night I’d ever witnessed. I thought about the conversation I’d just had with Adaline….I just had a conversation with Adaline…I’m remembering who Adaline is…I’m not supposed to remember anything. I looked around quickly to see if I was in danger and realized that I was standing on a sheet of ice looking at a sign that read “Antarctic Logistics & Expeditions, Union Glacier Antarctica.” Next to that sign was one of those distance to location signs pointing in various directions. “New York, Oslo, Hong Kong, Punta Arenas, Sydney.” That’s when I realized that I was reading the sign because a light was bouncing over my shoulder from behind me. Huh? I turned to look and saw three people running towards me in bright red coats, one already spreading an emergency thermal blanket as they came up to me. At that moment I realized two things. One, I wasn’t cold and Two, I was butt-ass naked.

“Who the hell are you?” a man yelled at me in French.

“Calm down Pierre, I don’t recognize him either but he’s naked and it’s 0 degrees Celsius out here right now, not too bad for this time of year. We need to get him inside though, he’s naked.

“I’m not cold,” I tried to say in French but was cut off by the third person

“He’s mumbling that he’s not cold,” a second woman said. “It could be shock? Let’s get him inside quickly.”

I was guided quickly towards one of the closet clamshell tents and was led inside. The second woman ran over and grabbed a snowsuit and thermals while the first woman looked me over then peered into my eyes. “What’s your name?” she asked in English

“Adam.”

“Okay Adam, do you know where you are?”

“The sign said Union Glacier”

“That’s right, Do you know what day it is or the date?”

“No idea,” I said.

“That’s okay. We’re going to get you dressed then get you over to medical to check you out. Do you have any pain, any tingling sensations in your extremities, your fingers, or toes?”

“Nope, I feel fine,” I said as I wiggled my fingers and my toes.

“Good, that’s good. My name is Lindsey and the other woman getting you clothes is Samantha. We’re going to get you dressed then go back outside to a bigger building okay?”

“Okay Lindsey, and thank you?”

Samantha brought me clothes and I dressed. The three of them led me over to another building that was a little bigger and I was led into a makeshift medical examination room to wait for the doctor with Lindsey, while Samantha and Pierre went off to find the doctor. A couple of minutes later they returned with another man who seemed to be in his early forties or fifties came into the building and rushed over.

“Lindsey, what is the meaning of this, what’s happened, I’d just gotten comfortable and was getting ready to enjoy a nice glass of bourbon and watch a movie.” The doctor said in English.

“Doc, I swear he just appeared next to the marker sign. One second he wasn’t there the next he was, and he was but assed naked.” Lindsey answered back in English.

“Yep, butt ass naked,” Samantha said.”

“Sorry about that,” I said.

The doc approached me, and looked at my hands and feet, “What was the temperature out there tonight?”

“Right now, it’s 0 Celcius,” Pierre said in English.

“At the very least I’d expect his extremities to be red as blood flow returned, yet he looks fine.” The doc picked up one of the laser temperature readers and aimed it at my forehead. “98.6 Fahrenheit, no temperature.” He looked at me for the first time, “How do you feel son?”

“Confused, not really sure how I got here.”

“Well, we did have a cargo plane leave here a bit ago. Do you know where you are from?”

“The United States,” I said

“I’m going to ask you to stay here for a bit. We’re going to send word that someone missed the plane and see if we can get them to turn around and come back. Hopefully, we can so we can get you out on that flight or you’ll be stuck with us through the week until the next transport arrives.”

The doctor walked over to talk to the three of them. Lindsey and Pierre stayed to keep an eye on me while Samantha and the Doctor went off to make calls. While I was sitting there a prompt activated in my Personal Interface.

Congratulations You have reached level 2!. You have 8 attributes to…

I canceled the prompt and then remembered that my link to the Labyrinth was turned off. Where was I getting XP from? I opened my Personal Interface and reviewed it.

Name: Adamantadine

Identity: Adam

Age: 35

Weight: 170

Birthday, July 16th, 2001

Fundamental Abilities: (Note Fundamental Abilities are Always Active and stay with you through any temporal shifts, changes, or paradoxes that occur.)

“Perfect Memory” - Like Photographic Memory except for all five senses with an automatic recall of desired information.

“That Was Easy” - Your Ability Guided Understanding, Jack of all trades, and the Orb of Knowledge have combined into the Unique ability “That was Easy.” You may use any skill as if you had skill level 100 in it. Even if you have never seen the skill used before your skill level is 100.

“I have Always Been I will Always Be” - Your existence is now sacrosanct. You are no longer subject to a Grand Father Paradox and you gain a 100% resistance to harmful Time Magic.

“Creature of Raw Chaos” - Your body has been inundated with Chaos. During this process, your will was strong enough to hold your core identity together and permanent changes were made to your body. You may now enter and exit Chaos 100% resistant to any further changes.

“Adaptable” - Chaos has modified your body so that you may adapt to any environment. From Absolute Zero to the Gravity well of a Singularity your body can and will adapt to all environmental conditions. This includes the ability to survive in those environments. Example: the ability to breathe underwater if necessary.

“Undying” - You will reform at the nearest place of power containing Life Magic if killed. While you are not truly immortal, the powers that granted this ability have decreed that you will be resurrected and reformed a number of times equal to the souls you’ve spared from utter annihilation, this includes all souls across all Universes that were saved. Number of resurrections left: “What was that phrase you liked to use? “A number of times best phrased as a Scientific Number.”

“Resistant” - You are 50% resistant to all Primal Magic and natural manifestations of those energy types. Additionally, you are 100% resistant to all magic from the following spheres of power; "Chaos, Time, Space, and Gravity, and 50% resistant to Holy and Demonic Magic

“Godless” - The changes to your body have severed any clerical link to the divine you had. As you share a host of traits similar to the Divine you may not become the servant of any Divine again.

“Confluence” - Your Place of Power has merged with you. While you cannot access a Place of Power any longer Chaos seeps into from beyond the barrier of the Universe you’re in and converts it to primal magic of all spheres. You do not have control of this process. In any Universe, you have access to and can utilize any magical energy normally. Additionally, your Mana Regeneration is increased by Willpower + Endurance per minute. Finally, the process of converting raw Chaos into magic garners 1 XP per second.

Note: This seepage of magic acts like a magnet to leylines and will divert their normal path. Additionally, an area around you will become magically saturated allowing magic items and spells cast by others to work as well. This area increases by 100 feet for every Level, Grade, Division, Category, Tier, and Rank you attain.

“Spellweaver” - You neither memorize nor permanently add spells using spell slots. Instead, you may weave magic into any form of your desire so long as you have the skill and mana to do so.

“Personal Storage” - You now have the equivalent of 1,000' cubic feet of dimensional storage that reduces weight by 100%. It can be accessed at will. Items placed into or taken out of the space appear or disappear to the hand touching them. This space can be represented by slots if you prefer.

“Infinite Wealth” - Your Belt of Infinite Wealth has been transformed into a Fundamental Ability. You may pull forth any type of currency and have the ability to produce any amount of wealth you might need. As per the initial conditions of this item’s acquisition, any cost incurred for any wealth withdrawn is paid for by the Divine Detrik. Even through “The Change” this cost was maintained.

Level 1

Attributes

Strength 10

Agility 10

Dexterity 10

Endurance 10

Constitution 10

Intelligence 10

Wisdom 10

Willpower 10

Perception 10

Charisma 10

Luck 10

Primary Stats

Carrying Capacity 90 lbs. (41 kgs)

Hit Points:

4

Base Health Regeneration

3 HP per second

Mana:

200

Base Mana Regeneration

5 MP per second

Movement

Normal Running Speed: 16.2 mph, 24 fps

Standing high Jump: 32.2 Inches.

Note. Falling Damage is not mitigated by maximum jumping Distance.

Base Attack

Unarmed Attack: 9 Damage

Critical Damage Maximum Damage x2

Skills: See Fundamental Ability “That Was Easy” above

I closed my Personal Interface and thought for a second. My “Perfect Memory” ability was now a Fundamental ability. That was probably why I could remember everything I did. In fact, each and every one of those Fundamental Abilities was powerful. Minor problem. I was leveling again and I was told I’d have to see the new changes.

“Adam are you okay?” Lindsey asked.

“Yeah I’m fine, I was just wondering what day it is?”

“It’s January 1st, 2036, Happy New Year! Even if you don’t know how you got here.

“Not to worry, just trying to remember,” I said as I turned away and looked thoughtful. If I was earning 1 XP per second then 1 minute was 60 XP, 10 minutes was 600 XP and 1,000 XP would have been right around 16.5 minutes, just a little while ago I could have done that equation and given exact numbers. I looked at the clock and sure enough, it was just passed the hour. If the first couple of levels followed the previous leveling system, I should reach level 2 in about 20 minutes. And level 3 an hour after that.

Just then two men came in. Both carried batons and looked to be security officials of some sort. “Sir, I’m here to inform you that you are officially detained until Flight XL347 returns in two hours to pick you up. From there, you will be flown to Dallas Punta Arenas Chile where you will be met by United States Government Officials and escorted to America.”

“Why is that?” I asked

“Well Mr. Bennard, or whoever you are, your body double, a professor in Dallas is currently home and has no idea that he’s also in Antarctica. U.S. officials would like to talk to you about that.”

“I don’t know how I arrived here either so that’s fine. Do I need to be handcuffed or something?” I asked.

“No, but we will be with you until the handoff in Punta Arenas.

Samantha brought us all sandwiches and we sat down to eat and watch the news. Until I was able to review history I wouldn’t know if there had been any significant changes. I was able to see the United States flag behind someone when the President was brought up and the flag still looked the same, with only 50 stars, so wherever I was it must be very similar to the world I remembered.

As the plane landed and everyone was distracted I tried to use my “Infinite Wealth” ability to create some 20-dollar bills and sure enough, they just appeared in my hand. I placed them on the counter by the dishes and left them. They’d be a nice surprise for whoever came to do the dishes after we left. Rob and Todd came back from the window and escorted me to the waiting area with the other passengers while we waited for the plane to be refueled. Most weren’t happy and keep shooting daggers at me with their eyes. I apologized once then didn’t bother, they didn’t want to hear about it and everyone was tired. The plane was nice though, it kind of reminded me of one of those military cargo planes, a C-5, but it wasn’t. A new one for me, I didn’t know the make and model of this plane. It looked like some I’d come across but it was different. Maybe there had been some changes.

Once the refueling was done, we waited while everyone boarded then boarded last. There was a double-deck and I was escorted up to the 2nd floor and taken to the back of the cabin. Todd and Rob sat in front of me because the cockpit door was only 15 feet in front of me and I was an unknown security risk. I didn’t make trouble, there was no point, I was headed to the United States, it was where I needed to go to get answers.

The plane taxied turned around and we were off. It was only about a 5 hours flight to Punta Arenas, which I spent most of the sleeping. When I woke up I was level 4 and my attributes were all 12’s Unlike before I just held any remainders and kept my attributes even. It’d be a while before I was back to where I’d been but I’d get there.

Our plane landed and everyone disembarked. Once the civilians were gone I was led down to the tarmac and escorted over to a waiting government Learjet. Rod and Todd turned me over to two Military Security Forces personnel and a 1st Lieutenant then went off into the terminal. They’d told me they were headed back tomorrow.

I followed my military escort onto the Learjet, “This way sir, Please sit here”, and “Would you like something to drink?” were the extent of their conversation with me. It was an 8-hour flight and I also took the time to sleep through it as well. Six hours into the flight the lieutenant had taken a call and we’d diverted. It now looked like we were heading to Area 51. Though they’d tried to not let me know where we were going. They must have found a recording of my arrival. Did doppelgangers of American Citizens have rights under American Law? I guess I was about to find out.