Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Season 1:  

William:  

William’s car pulled up outside his house. The sky was dark now. He turned the key, and the engine cut off, but William didn’t move. He sat frozen in his seat, feeling numb and small. 

He couldn’t stop thinking about everything that had gone down in the last couple of hours. 

He couldn’t stop thinking about Mark and Omni Man. 

Despite feeling frozen, William reached for his phone. The battery was on twenty two percent. He’d been so focused on the broad cast that he barely noticed the low percentage. 

Not that anyone could blame him. 

He pulled up the news broadcast again. 

Nothing new about Omni Man. Nothing new about Invincible. Just the Guardians, Atom Eve and several more superheroes in the last hour helping civilians in the city.  

William blackened the screen. 

He didn’t want to keep seeing all the casualties. It was horrible enough to know that thousands were dead or injured but on top of that it was done by a man William had known half of his childhood.  

Oh god!  

It was done by a man he had once considered hot. 

It was done by a man who could’ve murdered him today. 

William felt a shiver run through his body as he looked up at the dent in the roof of his car that had been delivered by Mr Grayson only a mere few hours ago before he’d gone on a homicidal rampage that included beating the living shit out of Mark. 

William wondered for a split second what had stopped the man from making him one of the many casualties of the day, but he shook his head to rid himself of the thought. 

There was no point in dwindling on the what ifs. 

He was alive right now and that was more than he could say for some people.  

He just prayed to God that Mark wasn’t in that category. It had been hours since the camera crews lost sight of him and Omni Man. 

William was terrified. 

If they weren’t flying in the skies anymore, did that mean that Mark was...... No! 

William couldn’t afford to think like that. It was Mark. He was Invincible. 

Sure, he’d been beaten up quite a few times, but he always bounced back. 

So, what if it was his dad beating him up, who was literally the strongest being on the planet and had ripped the Immortal in half like he was a piece of paper? 

What was his point again? 

Mark! 

The point was, Mark always got back up. 

He had to believe his best friend was alive. He had to have faith. 

Still, he kept looking at his phone as though if he stared at it hard enough, it would tell him the exact location of Marks whereabouts and his vital signs. 

Ughh! The man didn’t even have a phone so he could call him. 

He didn’t think Mrs Grayson would be at home after her husband nearly attempted to murder their son in front of the whole wide world. 

Maybe he could call Eve? He was last with her before it all happened. Maybe she would know more than the news crew? Did Eve know about Mark’s secret identity? She was the one who told them about Mark getting hit by the bus which obviously wasn’t really a bus, but did that mean she knew who Mark really was? What if she didn’t and he accidently revealed Mark’s secret? 

Ughhhh! 

This was so frustrating. He just wanted to know if Mark was ok. He had already potentially lost Rick, he couldn’t handle losing Mark as well. 

Maybe he would just chance it and call her. 

Wait! He didn’t have Eve’s number.... but Amber did. 

He unlocked his phone and went to his contacts finding Ambers number, but his finger hovered over the call button. 

Amber didn’t know about.... wait! Yes she did. She did know about Marks identity because Mark had followed her out of the car and had and had gone up to her room and revealed it to her. Though that didn’t fix shit for Mark, but she knew and had known for weeks apparently. Which meant he could call her but that didn’t tell him if Eve knew and ex-boyfriend or not, she probably wouldn’t want his best friend calling her, to call another girl to find out if he was alive or not. 

Ugh! Back at square one. 

His screen dimmed and was about to go black, but a notification popped up. 

His heart raced for just a second before disappointment settled in. 

It was just a text from his mom. 

‘Hi sweetie. You were meant to be home hours ago. Everything ok? Have you seen the news? Come home asap. Your aunt and cousins are here at the house. Thankfully they weren’t too close to the chaos in the city, but I wanted them here for a few days.’  

William looked at the text and sighed. 

His aunty Kathy was a nightmare as were her gremlin kids, but he was glad they were alive. It didn’t surprise him that his mother would invite them over. 

He sighed again. He’d inquire about Mark tomorrow. His mother and aunt would be wired all night, and he didn’t have the energy to deal with that right now. He felt so drained. He just needed some sleep and then he could fret again. 

He unfastened his seat belt and opened his car door. Both his parent's cars were in the driveway, and he saw aunty Kathys across the road. He looked at the house. 

The living room lights were on. Most of the houses on the street were on in fact. The neighbourhood was eerie quiet and not a single person was on the road. 

He wasn’t surprised. Everyone was probably watching the news. Regardless that the damage had been done to the main city of Chicago, he’d seen the chaos across the suburbs and outskirts of people trying to flee home. 

Thats how terrified everyone was. 

He closed his car door, but his attention was caught on the dent. He hadn’t seen it from the outside. In the streetlight he could see it was the shape of a handprint.  

How the hell did he even fix that?  

He sighed again. 

William took slow steps towards his home. He didn’t want to hear more details about the city chaos which he knew that’s all his mother and aunt would be talking about. His dad would be watching the news like a hawk. 

His cousins better not be going through his shit. 

He was two steps away from the door when he sensed something behind him but before he could even turn there was a hand on his mouth and suddenly William was being yanked back.  

He tried to struggle against his assailant as another pair of hands lifted him off his feet. William tried to kick out he really did but the hands gripping him had iron grips.  

His screams were muffled. 

He looked at the assailant who had his feet with wide eyes as he recognised the giant red eye. 

Oh God!  

William huffed and puffed. He tried to swing. He tried to bite but it was no use especially when he felt a sharp prick in the side of his neck and then a pressure and finally drowsiness as his vision went blurry. 

The last thing he saw before blacking out was the eerie glow of a green circle which suspiciously looked like a portal. 

Amber:  

Amber was scouring the internet. She had every social media page open, looking for any sign of Mark. 

It was hard though. With the amount of tags that included the name Invincible and Omni Man, actually trying to find a post with actual news and not just reactions, was hard. 

The news had lost them ages ago and was reporting on the devastation of Chicago now.  

Amber felt her heart cry for the people. So many innocents lost because of a man who swore to protect the planet. 

How could he do this? 

He was Omni Man, one of the greatest superheroes in the world. 

Was he under some kind of mind control?  

Surely that had to be the only reason he would kill the Immortal, kill innocent people and hurt Mark. 

Mark! 

Where was he? Was he ok? Was he ali.... don't finish that question. 

Mark was fine. He was out there somewhere. Probably in a lot of pain but he was out there. 

Oh Mark! 

Only a few hours ago she’d been so mad at him and now that all felt pointless. She just wanted to see him. Make sure he was ok. Tell him that everything would be ok. 

Would it? 

He was fighting Omni Man. He was fighting his own dad if what some of the posts on social media were saying was true. That Omni Man was Invincibles father. Now that she fought about it. Mr Grayson did look awfully similar to Omni Man. 

Oh God! 

She came off Instagram and went onto Twitter. 

It was roughly the same. 

A bunch of tweets relaying the same stuff. 

Loads of videos and photos. 

Everyone was confused. So many people were shocked. Some people were spouting theories. Loads were rooting for Invincible, the odd few were rooting for Omni Man. 

Amber rolled her eyes. 

Official accounts were reporting the body count and damage done to the city. The president was getting ready to make an official statement in the morning. The Guardians were rescuing civilians. 

No one had seen Omni Man or Invincible in hours. 

Where was he? 

“Come on Mark, where are you?” Amber said aloud to herself. 

There was a sudden knock at her door. 

“I’m busy!” Amber called out. 

“Honey are you ok?” Came her mother's voice through the door. 

“Yeah, I’m fine mom.” Called Amber not even sparing a glance at the door. 

“Your grandfathers feeling tired so I’m gonna help him go to bed and then do the same. God knows what’s in store at work tomorrow with everything that's happened. I know you’re probably immersed in the news yourself right now, but you didn’t eat earlier so I’ve left some dinner on the stove. Make sure you have something before settling down for the night honey.” Her mother said through the door. 

“I will mom. Night!” Replied Amber, her eyes locked on the screen. 

She heard her mother shuffle down the hallway and Amber let out a sigh. She'd been in her room for hours watching the news and searching the internet. 

Food was the last thing on her mind. 

All she wanted was to find Mark but nothing substantial was coming up which was making her stressed. 

She was close to throwing her laptop. 

Should she try and call someone? Like whom? 

Would William know where Mark was? He was the last one with him. No that was stupid he didn’t know about Marks identity, or did he? 

She had no idea. It was rather obvious that he was Invincible especially with the whole Upstate incident, but Rick and William didn’t seem to make any connection. Probably because she made a big deal about Mark. 

It was out of anger because he refused to stop lying. 

God, to think that he had only told her the truth only hours ago.  

Would things have gone different today, if she hadn’t been so angry and told him to leave? Would he still be here, away from Omni Man and safe? Would thousands have not been killed today if she had just given him one more chance? 

Amber felt her head slump in her hands, and she let out a small guttural cry.   

That was arguably the worst what if scenario to put on herself, but she didn’t have anyone else to blame. 

She took a deep breath. 

No that was stupid. 

Whatever was going on with Omni Man, was his own thing. That had nothing to do with her and judging by how he was acting today, something told her that he would’ve done what he did or something akin to it regardless of if Mark had been with her. 

She looked at the screen again. 

#Invincible  

Invincible. Why did Mark have to be Invincible? 

Why couldn’t she have found a comic book geek willing to take a beating for her, who was a normal boy and could actually be there for their relationship? 

No, she couldn’t have that. 

Most girls only had to be worried about their boyfriend cheating or their boyfriends not being committed enough or something. 

Not her though. 

No, she was the ex-girlfriend of what... the second most powerful superhero in the world and she had to be worried if he had gotten his head split in or not. 

Ex-girlfriend. 

God, the thought made her insides curl. 

She didn’t want to be the ex-girlfriend. 

She wanted to be with Mark, and she wanted to know he was safe. She wanted to have a relationship with him because she liked him and because his stupid adorable face made her happy. 

But if he was somewhere out there and safe, how could they even rekindle their relationship? 

Six months together and he had only told her the truth because he felt forced too instead of trusting her and even if she got past those feelings of him lying to her and not being the present in their relationship, that would be nothing compared to what he was going through now. 

His father made him kill people today.  

His father killed people in front of him. 

His father hurt him in front of millions. 

Pushing all that aside, there was also the lifestyle that made him barely present for their relationship to begin with. Knowing the truth was one thing but how could they really have a relationship when she wasn’t a part of that lifestyle? 

Sure, she helped people, but he actually saved lives and fought bad guys. 

She wasn’t remotely mad about that, but two people had to make a relationship work and she couldn’t come first over the world. 

That was out of the question. 

She wouldn’t ask that of Mark but then what would be the point of them being together? 

She would never fit in his world properly. He would never fit in hers and God only knew how this situation with his dad would affect him mentally and emotionally. 

Rekindling their relationship may be the worst thing for him right about now or maybe it would be the best thing? A distraction. 

Ughhh! 

She didn’t know what to think right now. 

She looked at the screen again and refreshed the page. 

The trending page was up. 

#Omni Man  

#Invincible  

#Chicago  

#Omni Man Vs Invincible  

#Omni Man Vs The Immortal  

#Guardians of the Globe   

#Pray for Chicago  

#Evil Omni Man  

#Where’s Invincible?  

Amber gritted her teeth and slammed her laptop shut.  

Why did everything have to be so complicated? 

Amber lifted her arm and pulled the scrunchie from her hair, letting it fall loose at her shoulders and ran a hand through it, barely resisting the temptation to grab a chunk and rip it out.  

She put her laptop on charge and flipped off her bedroom light before plopping down on the bed. 

She watched her ceiling for maybe five minutes straight, annoyed she wasn’t moving to go down to the kitchen and eat like her mother requested but she couldn’t find the energy to do so. 

Her thoughts were plastered on Mark and a relationship that was doomed. 

Yet she still wanted to try. She wanted to find him, hold him in her arms and protect him from every single bad guy that existed. 

She turned on her side and closed her eyes. 

Searching hadn’t done anything for her today, so she’d try tomorrow and hopefully she’d have some answers about Mark.  

She'd call William first thing and see if he knew anything. 

With that thought she tried to settle herself. 

She laid still for minutes and finally felt herself drifting when light suddenly penetrated her closed eye lids. 

She scrunched them tighter assuming her mother had walked in her room. 

She decided to stay still, so her mom didn’t try and force her to go eat but the light was disturbing her, so she peaked one eye open to see what her mother was doing. 

To Ambers surprise, her one eye noted something strange, and it took her brain far too long to register that something was wrong. 

Her bedroom light was still off. She was very much still in darkness yet there was a bright light inside her room that on far wall was emitting a green glow. 

Amber thought for a second she had left her laptop open, but she remembered slamming it shut, so the light couldn’t be from the laptop. 

Amber suddenly felt her heart racing as she felt a sudden shiver down her spine. She was not alone in her bedroom, and she got the impression her mother was not with her. 

Amber pretended to shift like she was still asleep and pushed herself right to the edge of the bed, letting her arm fall limp where her baseball bat sat by her bedside desk. 

Todd had once snuck into her room through her window after getting drunk last summer. Although she realised it was just him, she had kept the bat in her room since. 

Amber could sense it now. 

Someone or something in her room. 

Maybe it was Mark?  

She reached for the bat regardless and then sprung from the bed, hoping to surprise whoever was in her room enough for her escape if she needed too. 

However, as Amber looked at the culprits in question the bat fell from her hands as shock and horror took over her system. 

Oh God! 

Amber froze for only a moment before she bolted for her door. 

It was a futile effort. They were faster and stronger. She didn’t even have a chance to scream before a she felt a needle prick her and a moment later, she was passing out.  

The last thought on her mind was praying Mark would rescue her. 

0000000  

Mark:  

They were driven home by three of the GDA soldiers. No one spoke. The silence was almost unbearable, but Mark couldn’t bear to break it.  

What could even be said? 

‘Hey mom, sorry I didn’t kick dad's ass and thousands of people died! Sorry you know that he called you a pet! Sorry I got my powers, and he became a psychopath.’ 

Yeah, that conversation would go over well. 

Mark rested his head against the window. 

His father was a murderer, a conqueror and a liar. 

He lied to him his entire life and nearly killed him. 

Would he have done it?  

Mark pressed his head further into the glass.  

Don't think like that! 

He heard the small splinter crack start to form and pulled his head back. 

Shit! 

He looked over at the two soldiers sitting opposite them. Neither seemed to notice it.  

He looked away and leaned his head backwards instead. 

The drive was a long one. Their second day of it too. 

His mother had not wanted to be flown and the GDA’s teleporter was still being repaired so it was a drive from Virgina back to Chicago. They had stopped off at a motel and it was one of the most awkward experiences of his life, yet he had no energy to break it nor did his mother. 

They were both too suffocated in their own worlds to really talk. 

Five and a half hours later. 

They were home. It sounded too still. It smelt too clean. It felt too large and empty. His mother decided she was gonna lay down. 

He found out a few minutes later that was code for drown in her sorrows. 

He didn’t blame her. 

He wasn’t expecting company when the doorbell rang. He didn’t want it either, so when Amber came rushing in his arms, it surprised him how welcoming her touch was. 

He didn’t expect to be happy to see William and Eve either.  

He didn’t think it was a feeling he could ever experience again but there it was bubbling inside his chest. 

Maybe he could get through whatever came next. 

Season 3:  

Masked Mark:  

“ANGSTROMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU’RE DEADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Screamed his black and yellow variant. 

Mark didn’t even look at him. He kept his eyes focused on his surroundings. 

Nothing but sand, sand hills, and scrap for miles to see. 

“Ughhhh! He can’t hear you idiot!” Came the reply from behind him. The distinctive high pitch voice of his Mohawk variant. 

There was silence for a moment; shock he assumed but then he heard the woosh behind him. 

Mark turned to see the Bumblebee variant had gone for Mohawk. 

Mohawk blocked a jab to the face but went hurtling back from the force. Bumblebee propelled forward and this time Mohawk was ready for it and dodged him with an excellent show of speed and managed to punch Bumblebee in the back of his head. 

“Wooooo! Let’s go!” Cried the variant without any goggles, chuckling at the chaos. 

“Imbeciles even my slaves behave better than this!” Snapped the variant with the Viltrumite logo on his suit, folding his arms. 

Wow! 

Bumblebee pivoted grabbing onto Mohawks leg and slamming him to the sand, with alarming force. He then flew down, but Mohawk kicked out his leg straight into bumblebee's chest. 

Mohawk was strong just like every other Mark here but the difference in strength was rather evident as Mohawks kick only sent Bumblebee hurtling upwards a little. 

Still, the man was not willing to go down without a fight and flew up to meet Bumblebee who began to meet him in the middle. However, before they could clash, his Omni variant and his maskless variant had grabbed onto the two, Omni pulling onto Bumblebee and Maskless pulling onto Mohawk. 

Maskless was not necessarily struggling but Mohawk was determined to continue this fight as was Bumblebee. 

Mark decided to join in pulling Mohawk back and thankfully his Viltrum counterpart did the same with Bumblebee. 

The combined pairs were enough to calm the two volatile Marks down. 

“Are you both finished?” Asked the soft but authoritative voice of Omni Mark. 

“Do you see his head ripped off his neck?” Answered Bumblebee in a very controlled but chilling manner as though he weren’t just acting like a rabid dog moments ago. 

It made Mark severely uncomfortable. There was something altogether disturbing about Bumblebee Mark. 

Mohawk who wasn’t any better, didn’t seem to care about the direct threat however and instead formed a big shit eating grin on his face. 

“Awwwww! Did I make you upset with me Lemon cake? I didn’t mean too. How bout I give ya a big fat smooch and we hug it out.” He Said in that agitating voice of his. 

Mark had to admit, the man was brave. Insane but brave. 

Bumblebee just stared at him, his face a straight line but behind those Goggles, Mark knew darkness was lurking in those eyes. 

Before any response could come from him though another Mark spoke. 

This one had a blue veil on his face and had blood drenched across his suit like the maskless variant. 

Mark almost jolted at the twang in this Marks voice, it surprisingly by far was the most distinctive voice amongst them. 

“Well now that you losers are done with your pissing contest, does anyone wanna tell me how the fuck we’re gonna get out of this shithole dimension?” He snapped. 

There was silence amongst them for a moment. 

Then another Mark broke it. 

“Isn’t it obvious cowboy? Angstrom doesn’t want us to get out of this shithole dimension.” Said their burnt variant, another one with a distinctive voice, though Mark got the heavy impression that it wasn’t down to his vernacular surroundings. 

Burnt Mark wasn’t looking at any of them. His back was towards them all as he floated in the air looking out towards the horizon which very much like his own line of vision was nothing but sand and scrap. 

He felt Mohawk shift behind him. 

“Way to be a Debbie downer man. Hah! Debbie downer. Get it? Cause that's what happened to your mommy.” Said Mohawk mockingly whilst elbowing him in the ribs.  

Mark felt a heat surge through his body.  

As if his dead mother was anything funny to joke about. 

Mark felt his fist clench.  

No Goggles chuckled. 

“Personally, mama’s boy, I wouldn’t have that if I were...... you .” He said stirringly with an irritating comical wink to add. 

Mohawk laughed harder. 

Mark felt a hand on his shoulder.  

“Don’t.”  

It was Maskless with his soft almost timid voice.  

“Oh come on man! You’re gonna take that? Kick his ass!” Yelled no Goggles. 

“Enough!” Called out Omni Mark, who barely had to raise his voice, yet they all heard the authority in it, and it disturbingly reminded him of his father. 

He hated that. 

Omni Mark let out a sigh and pinched his nose. 

“I get that we’re all from different universes with different rules and different attitudes.” He gave a pointed look at Mohawk and No Goggles then he continued. 

“But right now we’re all in the same predicament and more importantly we’re all the same person. Which means we need to all be on the same side if we’re going to figure out a way to get out of this dimension. In fighting and provocation will do nothing to help us because Mark over there is right. Angstrom has sent us to some desert dimension and refused to uphold his end of the deals he made with us. The chances of him coming back for us are slim. Not impossible but unlikely. So, we need to work together. Now frankly I don’t like most of you. I think half of you are immature but none of us need to be best friends. We just need to not be enemies when we all have a common one. We do that and the next steps to figuring out what to do can go a lot smoother and we can all get home or anywhere else a lot quicker without some of us losing our heads.” 

There was silence again before stripe boy broke it. 

“Yeah, thanks for the pep talk dad ! But how exactly do we all work together if none of us have the power to dimension travel unless one of you assholes can all of a sudden shit portals?”  

“Oh, you didn’t know? I do that every winter dude, shame the suns beating down right now.” Replies Mohawk in a nonchalant manner. 

No Goggles snorted and stripe boy growled. 

“Theres that silly provocation I was referring too. If any of you Marks would like to use your heads, you’ll notice all around us is sand. Given that we all have alien physiologies, you could try but I don’t think eating sand is gonna do us any good which means we need to find a source of food and water. Whether that’s on this planet or another one or through other means, we need to work together to ensure we don’t die here.” Replied Omni Mark, his tone never wavering. 

“That sounds like a plan and all but like you said, everything is sand. How are we even gonna be able to tell anything apart to even tell where to find food. Navigation was never my strongest suit, which means I’m willing to bet it’s not several of you guy’s either.” Said Mark looking around the group. 

“We’ll have to improvise. We all must have different strengths and weaknesses. Some of us are faster, some of us are stronger, some of us are smarter. We use those strengths to advantages. We can probably use all this metal scrap to help us out with navigation. Make signs and what not. No mark by himself either. We don’t know if anything is out there and strength in numbers can’t hurt. In the meantime, we should wait here for a few hours maybe a day at max. If there's a slim chance that Angstrom comes back for us, we should all stay in one spot, however I want to survey the planet off world and see what we’re dealing with. Mark, would you accompany me please.” Finished Omni Mark looking at burnt Mark who’d finally turned towards the group. 

There was the slightest scrunch in his face, but he nodded his head and complied, shooting up in the air. 

Omni Mark watched him for a second before looking at the rest of them. 

“We’ll be back. Try not to kill each other whilst we’re gone.” He said before shooting up after Burnt Mark. 

They all watched them for a moment before the silence was broken yet again. 

“Ok but who the hell made him in charge?” Cried Out Mohawk. 

“That goddamn suit has fried his brains into thinking he can rule over me.” Spat stripe boy. 

“And you listened like a good little Mark.” Replied No Goggles mockingly. 

Mohawk cackled at this. 

“Choose your next words wisely.” Threatened Stripe boy, a vein at his temple popping through his mask. 

“I can’t decide who’s more up their own ass. You or Omni twat up there.” Chimed veiled Mark to stripe boy. 

“Ughhhh! Will guys give it a rest please. Omni Mark is right. We need to stick together if we’re going to get out of here alive.” Called out Maskless Mark from beside him. 

Mark knew he was right, but as he looked over at Bumblebee and Viltrum Mark, faces, predatory and stoic and then over at Mohawk, Veil and No Goggles who barely even gave the slightest hint of caring, Mark was sure being stuck with these variants wasn’t going to pan out for their survival at tall. 

Chapter Text

William:  

WIlliam felt his eyes blearily start to open. It took him thirteen blinks before his vision finally began to clear. 

A pink glow penetrated his vision in an otherwise darkened room. 

William flexed his fingers and felt soft sheets under them. He realised he was in bed.  

He stretched his muscles relieving the aches and clicking his bones before his eyes travelled upwards and he noticed the white ceiling above him.  

Despite the room being dark and only lit by pink from an undetermined location he couldn’t help but notice the ceiling. 

It was pristine and so shiny that it almost gave the room a second light. He also almost thought he was looking in a mirror, but his mind suggested that maybe it was some kind marble material? 

He looked away and began to push up on his elbow before he felt a jolt in his chest. 

His ceiling didn’t look like that! Nor did he have any pink lights in his room. 

His body sat up to attention and panic flickered through Williams entire body as he realised he was definitely not in his own bedroom. 

The room he was in was far too spacious for one and two it looked like it came directly out of a blade runner movie or something. 

Paneled pristine white and black walls, some high-tech looking touch panels and light strips imbedded into the walls. The greyish tinted floor that mirrored the ceiling in its shininess. He could now see where the pink glow was coming from as he saw light strips engrooved along edge of the ceiling. There was a singular glass table with a white cushioned chair tucked into it a few feet away from the be.  

There looked to be two doors in both the far corners of the room that had no handles. The far wall there was a massive black screen in the wall that displayed the time digitally, currently, just a little after twelve. Finally, to his right was a large window like one those sky rise apartments, only this window seemed to have a shutter across it which made the room dark except for the pink light. 

Despite the cleanliness and almost richness of the room, William felt his heart race further because his memory was suddenly coming back to him. 

He had been attacked outside his home, and he had been kidnapped by those things that, that monster had made. 

The Reanimen! 

That's what he had called them. 

What Rick had been turned into. What William had almost been turned into if Mark hadn’t come and saved him. 

They had been the ones who had grabbed him. He had seen the red eye thing. He couldn’t forget it. It had only been yester.... no not yesterday. Two days ago, now. Yesterday..... oh shit! Yesterday thousands of people had died in Chicago because of.... Omni Man. 

A.K.A Mr. Nolan Grayson.  

Marks dad. 

Mark! 

Oh shit! 

He had been getting the shit kicked out of him and had been M.I.A for hours.  

Mark was missing and now so was he because he had been kidnapped but kidnapped by who? And taken where? 

D.A Sinclair was his first and most obvious thought but that made no sense. 

Mark had broken the man's jaw, and that shady government guy, what was his name again? Charlie? No. Clint? No... oh wait. Cecil! Yeah, that was it.  

That Cecil guy had arrested him and taken Rick and the remaining reanimen. There was no way he could’ve broken out of prison and then tracked him down and kidnap him. 

But then again maybe the other Reanimen were more loyal to him than Rick? Maybe they had somehow fought Marks government people and came to get their revenge? 

But that made no sense either. 

He may have beaten up D.A Sinclair a little but that was nothing compared to Mark breaking his jaw and D.A Sinclair didn’t know who Mark or William was. He didn't know anything about him other than him telling him about having sex with Rick. 

Also, how could the reanimen of tracked him down without anyone seeing them? And if it was D.A Sinclair that kidnapped him, wouldn’t he have already been converted by now?  

William patted his body down.  

He still felt normal. Well at least he thought he felt normal. Everything still felt fleshy. He still had a pulse. He pinched himself and still felt the pain. He took a whiff of his armpit. 

Whew! He needed a shower. He smelt like he hadn’t showered in days.  

William flexed his toes and his legs loosening the stiffness. 

He definitely didn’t feel converted. 

So why had the Reanimen kidnapped him? And more importantly, why had they given him a room that made him feel too broke to even look at? 

D.A Sinclair had kidnapped him and kept him in the sewers, so this was definitely an upgrade, but William didn’t understand why he was here. 

He was sure that Mark wouldn’t be here to save him this time. 

Ok, so he had to save himself. Fine! He could do that. Maybe. He just needed to figure out his circumstances and come up with a plan. 

Yeah! 

Never doubt the power of a twink! 

William threw the white bed sheet off him. Noticing he was on a massive low-rise, queen-size bed. 

This was the weirdest kidnapping he had ever experienced and that was saying a lot considering the first one had almost seen him turn into a cyborg. 

William felt his legs feel sluggish but forced himself to pull his legs off the bed. The second his feet touched the ground; the room seemed to react. 

The pink light suddenly flickered off as the shutters on the window began to shift sideways. Natural light began to filter into the room, suddenly making the room an even brighter white. A wall to his left began to open and shift. Whereas moments ago, it was just a wall, suddenly it had panel looking boxes in it with some picture symbols and an entire counter now stuck out of it. 

The room was now bathed in full light as the shutters completely disappeared and William looked out the window and felt his jaw drop. 

Outside the massive window was the world but William assumed he couldn’t possibly be in Chicago anymore. 

He had to wonder if he was even on Earth for that matter. 

Outside the sky was a normal blue and it looked as though the sun may have been shining but that’s where the normal ended. 

From this view, William could see what looked like two twin high platformed stone bridges on stone pillar bases, that loads of people seemed to be walking across. There were four bridges in total though they sat in pairs with an open space between them.  

On the left twin bridge people were walking towards his direction on the right-hand side and away from his direction the left-hand side.  

On the right twin bridge, people on the right-hand side were walking away from his direction and on the left-hand side people were walking towards his direction. 

The bridges looked sturdy and cobble like with flower decorations across the walls but to WIlliam they looked like they went for miles and miles with no clear end in sight. 

The bridges at both ends also had a number of platforms to the side as well which led to many massive glass domes high off the ground but level with the bridges. William saw plenty of people walk towards these domes and they stretched as far as the eye could see too. Though there were some skyscrapers in the distance, but others wise there was nothing distinctive to tell where the hell he was. 

But that wasn’t even the weirdest part.  

Attached to the pillars below on the two bridges in the middle, were clear massive tubes that people were being sucked through. The tubes went under the bridges and then much like the bridges people were going towards his direction and away from it. They were also connected to the pillars that held up the Domes. 

Below all of this was nothing but a sea of greenery. 

If there was even a ground below, he couldn’t see it. All he could see was a forest of green trees that were so tall that they covered up half of the pillars immersed in them.  

The trees were everywhere and as far as the eye could see too. 

His eye caught movement at the top of the window.  

To his relief and shock he saw that there were birds in the sky and people who were flying in the sky.  

Ok so there were a few more things normal here. 

William snorted that flying was normal to him.  

However, things went weird again when he noticed not only some flying vehicles but also nonhumans amidst the people. 

Nonhumans shouldn't have been that strange to him. His world was filled with superpowered beings, and he literally had just learnt that his best friend was a half alien. 

The idea shouldn’t have been strange at tall. Aliens and supernatural beings attacked all the time, but the difference was; that side of the world didn’t really mix with the normal side of the world. 

Attacks? Sure.  

A supervillain would try and hurt the people, and the superheroes would come and save the day and then disappear. Everything would be normal and regular again until the next attack. 

The nonhumans he could now casually see were mixed with regular looking people like it was a normal everyday occurrence to see a red-looking half bird?, half man holding hands with a pink woman with three eyes floating and chatting with a normal looking human dude in a flying scooter type thing with what looked like a half demon child in a side compartment. 

William took a massive shaky breath though his shock was disturbed by a beeping noise on the panel behind him that suddenly started blinking blue. Reminding him that the room seemed to know he was awake. 

William panicked.  

He needed to get out of here or at very least hide.  

He went to stand only to fall flat on his face. 

To his surprise the grey tinted floor felt warm at least. Though seeing his muted reflection was weird to him. 

He tried to get up, but his legs felt heavy like lead. Even stretching them had done nothing apparently. 

Why couldn’t he use his legs? Was he a cripple? Did D.A SInclair cripple him? Did those monsters? Oh God was this a human centipede thing, and some alien was gonna turn him into a pet? 

He started using his upper body strength to start dragging himself across the floor, aware of the beeping panel still going. 

He didn’t know where he was going but he had to escape. He stared at the two far doors in the corner. The one on the left was the furthest away from him. The one on the right was imbedded in the furthest wall. Maybe there was a code to open it or something? 

William was halfway across the room when heard it.  

Click Clack!  

Click Clack!  

Click Clack!  

William’s blood ran cold. Someone was coming. He dragged himself as fast he could. His heartbeat was racing, and he could hear it pounding in his ears. 

He dragged and dragged himself until he was inches away from the door. He looked at it and raised one arm, straining the other one as it held up his body. 

Before his arm could touch the door William felt his body get yanked off the floor. 

Oh shit! 

He was gonna die now. 

“Please don’t kill me!” He yelped with his eyes shut tight. 

He heard a throaty chuckle escape whoever held him, and William peaked open one eye because he knew that chuckle. 

“Mark?” 

Amber:  

Amber stared intensely at the girl who sat opposite her.  

An hour ago, she’d woken up in this strange futuristic looking room, not knowing how she got in it. Of course, her memory flittered back to her. 

That robot thing that had attacked at the college and killed itself had friends and they had somehow found her, broke into her room and kidnapped her. She could the remember the green portal too.  

They must’ve have taken her through it. 

She wondered if she had been taken to the future. Everything about the room was too high tech for her to still be in her own time. 

That was the only logical explanation she could come up with. 

Though she couldn't explain why she’d been kidnapped and treated with hospitality. This room looked better than some five star hotels minus the limited colour. 

Still, she wasn’t gonna thank her captors anytime soon. They had still very much kidnapped her, no matter how pretty the room was. 

She wondered if Mark would be able to find her?  

She wondered if she was gonna die in this place? 

Amber when she awoke hadn’t moved for forty minutes. First out of shock, then fear and finally contemplation. 

She wondered where her kidnappers were? She had waited to see if they’d come or knew that she was awake because that was how a lot of kidnapping movies went. The captors usually spied on their captees, waiting for them to wake up before they began to do terrible things to them. 

She pinched herself for thinking like that but kept quiet and still.  

After forty minutes, which she could tell, thanks to the massive clock on the wall, she just decided she couldn’t stand the waiting anymore. 

Whatever future horrors awaited her, she would just deal with them or escape somehow or die trying. 

She slowly peeled the bed sheet off her. 

Nothing happened. 

She swung her feet off the bed and planted them on the ground.  

The room came alive. 

Amber was speechless when she saw the outside world. The bridges, the domes, the aliens.  

She had to be in the future surely? Was future Mark here? She stood up and noted how stiff her legs felt. She could barely move. 

So much for escaping.  

Still Amber managed to waddle over to the window, the floor comfortably warm against her feet. 

She noted a panel beeping behind the bed and felt her heart pulse. 

Someone knew she was awake. 

She didn’t even attempt to try and hide. What would be the point? This room was open space, and she could barely walk. There wasn’t even anything she could use as a weapon. 

She took a deep breath to calm her nerves as best she could and waited. 

It didn’t take long. Five minutes later she heard footsteps echoing outside the room. She inched over to the wall behind the bed and leaned against it for support. 

The footsteps got louder and louder and then suddenly the door in the far-left corner shifted upwards and, in the doorway, stood a girl. 

A girl she recognized. 

“Eve?”  

The girl gave her a soft smile. 

“Hello Amber.”  

Amber looked at her like she’d grown two heads. There were several niggling thoughts in the back of her mind that told her something wasn’t right. 

Eve looked like her normal self except for a few things. The biggest thing was her hair. It was black with a single pink streak in it and was now a pixie bob.  

Sure, Amber had seen Eve just a little over a week ago and maybe she had simply cut and dyed her hair but there was something different about Eve’s demeanour as well. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but she was different. 

The second thing was how calm she was. She didn’t seem afraid whatsoever. She seemed perfectly in control. She stood a little straighter than most people but otherwise everything from her eyes, her face and even her clothes, said she was comfortable wherever they were. 

The third thing which arguably bugged her the most was her face. It was normal but if she was in the future than why wasn’t Eve older? She looked exactly the same age from the last time she’d seen her, when she had told her about Mark getting hit by a bus...... 

What the hell was going on here? 

Why was Eve here? Why was she calm?  

“Eve! I’m a little confused right now. Maybe you wanna fill me in on what's going on because right now, I’m trying to figure out if you’ve kidnapped me or if I’ve gone insane.” Said Amber, keeping her voice deliberately quiet so she didn’t freak out. 

“Everything will be explained to you Amber, I promise but first, how about some breakfast?” Said Eve with a placid smile. 

Amber looked at her for moment deliberating if she should scream at her or not but a rumble from her stomach answered the girl's question. 

She was hungry. She should’ve eaten the food when her mother asked her too. 

Oh shit! 

Her mother! Did she and grandpa know she was missing? Were they with the cops looking for her?  

Would they even think she was missing? Thousands of people were killed in the city. Would they even be thinking about her?  

They wouldn’t even know where to find her if they reported her missing. 

She gave a deep sigh and ran her hand through her hair.  

Ugh! She didn’t even have her scrunchy to tie it up. Which meant she was definitely gonna pull it, at some point during this ordeal. 

She gave Eve a hesitant look and then just nodded at her. 

Eve walked over to the left of the bed to where the counter in the wall was. Amber watched her press a few buttons on the panel and two minutes later a slit had opened in the wall and suddenly there was a selection of breakfast foods was on the counter. 

Amber’s mouth dropped. 

Eve grabbed the trays that the food sat on and brought them over to the glass table before grabbing a jug of orange juice, cutlery, plates and two cups. 

She then looked back at Amber expectantly. 

“You coming?”  

Amber was still rather perplexed by the situation, but her hunger won out. She was starting to get some more feeling in her legs though they still felt stiff and heavy. 

It was a slow walk though Eve patiently waited as Amber made it to the chair and sat down. 

She then looked at Eve who was still standing and looked around. 

“There isn’t another chair in here.” Stated Amber. 

She really hoped she wasn’t just gonna stand there and watch her eat. 

Eve just smiled. 

“That’s not a problem.” Replied Eve with a smirk and then she waved her hand. 

Amber eyes almost lunged out of her skull as she watched a pink glow emerge from Eve’s hand and suddenly a second chair materialized out of thin air. 

If it weren’t for her stiff legs Amber would’ve stood so abruptly that the chair would’ve fallen back but as it took too much energy to even get to the chair, Amber settled on leaning back and grabbing a knife and pointing it at her. 

Ambers breathing became heavy, but she kept her hand still. 

“How did you do that and what’s going on?” Asked Amber with only the barest hint of a tremble in her voice. 

Eve looked at the knife and then back at Amber. 

“It’s my ability Amber. I can manipulate matter on a subatomic level.... as such.” She answered and Amber watched as she pointed at the knife which suddenly transformed into a bendy straw. 

Amber dropped it immediately and looked back at Eve. 

There was silence for thirty seconds straight before Amber broke it. 

“Are you gonna kill me?”  

Her tone was far too calm for the fear she suddenly felt but she’d told herself she would face whatever horrors awaited her and she wouldn’t give her captors the satisfaction of seeing her feeble in what potentially was her last moments. 

“I’m not gonna kill you, Amber. I’m not even gonna hurt you, though I would appreciate if you don’t try to point another weapon at me especially when I change the knife back and I’d appreciate it even more if you ate something. You’ll need your strength.” Said Eve, her tone ever so gentle. 

Amber stared at her in silence. 

“Please.” Pleaded Eve. 

Amber stared at her a little more before looking down at the food.  

She slowly reached for a plate and began filling it with some eggs, toast and bacon. 

She poured herself a glass of orange juice and then mechanically started eating as though everything may have been poisoned. 

She continued to eat slowly despite her overwhelming hunger. There was nothing she could do against a superpowered Eve who could rearrange matter and considering that Eve was somehow connected to her kidnapping, she didn’t want to give her a reason to use her power on her. 

Eve smiled again and began eating herself. 

It wasn’t necessarily an uncomfortable silence that fell between them, but it wasn’t comfortable either. It just was. Only the sounds of scraping cutlery, their chewing and gulping filling the air. 

Amber kept her eyes solely down and tried not to let her overwhelming thoughts of Mark, her family, her safety and Eve consume her. 

It was hard though.  

Everything was raw right now and insane to truly process. 

Despite her feelings, she finished her food and then stared at Eve intensely, waiting for her to finish and answer her questions. 

Eve took her time, grating Amber’s nerves but she kept herself quiet and patient. 

Eventually Eve scraped the last piece scrambled eggs up with her toast and chewed until it was gone.  

She washed it down with some orange juice and then took a moment for herself before staring at Amber, that placid smile back, like this was the most normal thing in the world. 

It pissed Amber off. 

Silence settled between them again and Amber felt her jaw twitch. 

“Well?” She cried not able to reel in her temper. 

“You want answers. Ask away.” Replied Eve sitting back. 

She had a million questions but where to begin? 

“What the fuck is going on here? Where the hell am I? Why did you kidnap me? Who’s in charge of this operation? When do you drop the bullshit act of pretending like you’re not gonna hurt me and how exactly is it that you have powers and no one in school ever noticed?” She yelled, each question getting louder. 

Those seemed like the most appropriate questions to start with. 

Eve didn’t even seem phased by her outburst. 

“Well, my powers were given to me as part of an experiment. A weapon designed for the government, but let's just say that things didn’t go as planned, so I got to live a relatively normal childhood until my powers kicked in and then I became the superhero, Atom Eve. No one in school noticed because one if you don’t expect to see a superhero in front of you, you won’t see one, but the more official scientific answer is there's lots of chemicals in drinking water that prevents a lot of people from seeing the world in its truest form. For good reason mind you but that includes seeing maskless superheroes.” Answered Eve calmly and Amber felt shocked because whilst she wasn’t a massive superhero fan she could now absolutely see it. 

She could see Atom Eve now despite the short black hair. Those chemicals were clearly powerful. 

She’d seen Atom Eve only last night on the news and never connected the dots. 

Something about that thought niggled her brain but the shock of learning that Eve Wilkins was actually a superhero was too shocking to even think on it. 

Another thought popped into her head. If Eve was a superhero, then that meant she must’ve known about Mark’s identity. She was defending Mark that night at the soup kitchen. She told him about the accident. 

Maybe she knew where he was? She had to bite her tongue though she wanted her other questions answered first.  

Have the facts laid out first and then think of something. 

“Ok. Toxic water. Next!” Replied Amber. 

“I’m not putting on an act. I’m not gonna hurt you, Amber. No bullshit, I promise. I’m aware you were brought here under a more taxing measures which there will be consequences for that, but you're safe for now and you weren’t meant to be kidnapped. The associate who brought you here is going through some things and is not dealing with it well. Really and truthfully, he should be taking some time off, but the circumstances of our situation can’t afford it. Still, you will find that everything from here will be a lot smoother.” Stated Eve and Amber could tell that she believed that. 

She felt a small wave of relief but still stared at Eve with suspicion. She simply nodded this time as a sign for her to continue. 

“That’s how and when. I can answer what and where but who and why will have to wait. You’ll get more details from who. So, which one first?” Asked Eve. 

“Where.” Replied Amber folding her arms. 

“You’re on an Earth. You're still in Chicago although that’s not the name of the city here. You're specifically in an apartment complex, like one of those domes you see outside. This specific apartment complex is on the citadel of Ogachic. Yes, that is Chicago backwards and the last c is silent. Don't ask why.” Replied Eve. 

Amber didn't know what to make of half of that but one thing caught her specific attention. 

“An Earth?” She questioned uneasily. 

“Yes, an Earth. You’re in a parallel dimension. One far more technologically advanced than that of your own dimension. You've been here for a little over two weeks sleeping off the serum that was injected into your system to bring you here which is why your legs are so stiff. Don't worry you’ll be walking fine within an hour now that that you’ve eaten. Food in this dimension is a lot more Nutrional. Now your first question specifically was what is going on? You’ll get much more detail when you meet the emperor here but let me make it clear to you. Whilst you weren’t supposed to be brought to this dimension the way you were, I promise you, you’re safe and with allies and more importantly; small rule break, you’re here for a very special purpose.” Stated Eve. 

Parallel Earth! Not time travel. 

Missing for two weeks!  

A thousand thoughts ran through her mind but only one came from her mouth. 

“And what would that be?” Asked Amber feeling numb and overwhelmed. 

Eve smirked at her. 

“You’re here to help save the multiverse.” 

Chapter Text

Maskless Mark:  

Two weeks had passed since Angstrom had stranded them on this God forsaken planet. Two whole weeks of blaring heat, no food, no water and nine other versions of him. 

It was a surprise that no one had managed to kill each other yet. Though they'd come close a few times. 

He couldn’t stand most of them, with the exception of his full masked variant who was now just Mask although he'd also gotten the unfortunate nickname of muffles curtesy of Mohawk though he was the only one who used it. 

Nicknames had been established for each Mark so it wouldn’t become confusing as they were all Marks. 

Omni had suggested it after he and Molt had returned from space.  

He hated calling Molt, Molt, but he refused to be prisoner, and no one wanted to go with Mohawks suggestion of freak, shitshow or roast. 

Baldy was also suggested which surprisingly didn’t bother him, but himself, Mask and Omni refused to call him that. 

Several other unnecessary nicknames were suggested for him before one of them suggested Molt.

Mask thought it was still rather insulting as did Mark himself, but Omni decided it was a good one and even told them that whilst the suggestion was meant to be insulting to him, suggesting he looked like he had been dipped in Molten lava, the nickname could also represent Molting skin, which was the process of shedding skin for new growth. 

Strangely he didn’t have a problem with Molt either. He didn’t find it funny, but he didn’t argue with it.  

Mark supposed he was a guy who learned how to roll with the punches, given his circumstances. 

He was Meek, though Mohawk had also so cutely suggested: 

Wet for willy.  

Willy’s bitch. 

And his personal favourite b.w, short for backdoor whore. 

Omni dismissed them all immediately.  

They ended up settling on Meek after Bumblebitch (Not his official nickname.) had stated that he looked too meek to even be Invincible and suggested putting him out of his misery.  

Omni ignored the suggestion. 

It was a crude jab, but he didn’t protest it or argue.  

Let them have their stupid nickname and underestimate him. If any of them messed with him, he’d show them exactly who he was. 

The full list of nicknames was; 

Molt  

Mask 

Meek 

Omni, obviously for the suit. 

Mohawk obviously for the poor choice in barbers. Though Asshole was just as good a nickname. 

Emp, short for Emperor because he refused stripe and target and some of the rowdier suggestions put forth to simply agitate him which had erupted in another fight. 

Shiesty was next but that was because he refused cowboy, buck, veil, cloth, and blue face. Why Shiesty was settled on, Mark didn’t know because his veil mask was not a shiesty mask, but it was the name he liked best. 

No goggles came afterwards although Mohawk decided he reallocate freak to him because of the fight that had escalated with Emp and freak really did describe no goggles well because the guy was smiling when Emp had his hands wrapped around his throat and was attempting to choke the life out of him. 

He even laughed after they had been pulled apart and said he should try it harder next time with a slightly suggestive voice. 

Freak was perfect for him, and he didn’t complain one bit. 

The Viltrumite who had yet to say a word was rightfully so named Mute. His face remained impassive when he heard that too. 

And finally, Bumblebitch which that and bumblebee were by him and Mask, but his official nickname was Sinister, once again curtesy of Mohawk though it was out of mockery after Sinister had suggested incel for Mohawk and had given him a predatory smile.

Mohawk had only grinned back at him. 

“Ooooooo, that smile, it’s so sinister! Man,   it’s got me quaking in my boots. I bet everyone trembles in your sinister aura. Please, don’t hurt me Bananarama, I’ll be a good boy, I swear!” 

Omni had stepped in before another fight could break out between them and decided Sinister would do before relaying what he and Molt had seen up there. 

Space was a cluster of broken debris, the stars were irregular, and they appeared to be on Earth as they'd seen the moon, but their description of Earth was that it looked like mud. Where the Earth was usually blue and green, according to them it was brown and grey. 

Not a green or blue patch in sight. 

“Are you shitting me? There’s no water here at tall?” Asked Shiesty, his voice agitated but a little anxious too. 

“There looks to be no bodies of sea water. My guess is that this dimension has gone through some sort of apocalyptic event. Whether there’s any other source of water, has yet to be determined.” Replied Omni. 

“Well, that's just fucking great! Stuck on a shithole dimension with nothing but a bunch asshole versions of me. Fun!” Spat Mohawk and Mark had to raise his eyebrow at that. 

Pot! Kettle! Black! 

“So, what now?” Asked Freak almost bored by the conversation. 

“Well like I said, we should wait to see if Angstrom comes back for us, however, the fact that he sent us to this specific dimension, suggests he had intent to betray us as opposed to him just sending us to a random dimension. There's also the fact he’s determined to kill the Mark Grayson of that dimension. We have to consider the possibility that Angstrom might be dead. Shiesty and I fought him and while his morals and emotions held him back mostly, physically speaking, he was far from weak. If Angstrom has attempted to engage in combat with him and Mark decides to actually use that strength, then we have to consider our other options.” Stated Omni, in a serious tone. 

Mark hadn’t even thought about the possibility of Angstrom being dead. As much as the meaty headed fucker deserved to have his spine torn out but if the other worlds Invincible killed him, there was a possibility they’d be stuck here forever unless they could find another way out. 

The question was how? 

Space travel? Mask was right, Mark’s navigation skills were shit and he’d only ever been to one other planet before which required a spaceship to tag along with.  

Unless the others were confident with space travel then what other options did, they have? 

Maybe someone would come for them? 

He scoffed to himself. 

Who would come looking for them? 

No one from his world even knew he was gone. There was no one in his world who cared about him to come searching for him and no one left who he cared enough about to stay in that dimension more or less tell them where he was going. 

Mask didn’t want another dimension; he wanted to go back home with Mom.  

“Mask, did you tell anyone about leaving your dimension?” He said quietly turning to his Masked variant, but all the other Marks snapped their heads toward them. 

Mask startled at the question before answering with a dejected no. 

Mark then turned to the rest of them. 

“Did any of you, tell anyone about their deal with Angstrom?” He asked in a soft and tired voice. 

He expected no one had. 

All of the others looked around the group. 

He expected right. 

“Better question. Do any of you fuckers actually have anyone who’d come looking for you?” Asked Molt mirroring Marks thoughts. 

“I’m beloved in my dimension.” Replied Emp pompously. 

“Even by your... slaves ?” Asked Sinister with contempt. 

“By everyone!” Snapped Emp. 

“And will everyone... go out of their way to find and rescue you and by extension us? Will they use or crack multidimensional travel just to come and find you and bring you home?” Asked Mask, his tone mildly sardonic. 

Emp faulted at the question and Freak snorted. 

“Even if we have anyone come look for us it would probably take them years to actually find us! Dimension travel is one of the most complicated pw.” Said Mohawk irritated though Mark was more surprised that something intelligent had come out his mouth. 

Omni seemed surprised by it too as he arched a brow at him. 

“Mohawk’s right. I don’t want to rely on the ifs and the maybes of our predicament. Our alien physiologies will take us only so far before things start heading south. We wait, we get some rest. Then we scout, observe and consider our options. Does everyone here think they can do that?” 

He didn’t like the tone on that last sentence. It reminded him too much of him.  

However, he nodded, too tired for any arguments.  

The others gave different varying levels of agreement, some more venomous than others. 

“Good. Let’s use some of this debris and set up a perimeter. Once we’ve done that, we can all get some rest, though we should keep watch for the night. We'll take turns in pairs.” 

Mark kept to Mask’s side as they “ made cam p.” 

He wouldn’t define his proximity or his unspoken allyship to the masked version of him as friendship or even co-dependency. 

But it was clear that himself and Mask were the lesser's of ten evils. 

Was Mark aware that they were both murderers? Absolutely.  

Was Mark aware that Mask was willing to kidnap another version of their mother? Of course. 

Was Mark aware that he was, one out of three variants covered in blood. One hundred percent. 

He wasn’t going to pretend that he was a good person. He wasn’t going to pretend that he hadn’t murdered people in that other dimension. He wasn’t going to pretend that it didn’t sting that he had done that only to gain nothing for it. 

It was hard pushing down his humanity. Despite being able to kill thousands with ease, he felt it. The slither of humanity that was always there like awkward itch under your nail that you couldn’t scratch.  

His father had tried to mould him into the perfect Viltrumite soldier and Mark once he realised it was fruitless to resist had did his best to forget the human in him. He had tried. He had really tried but forgetting William wasn’t a simple task. 

The thought of him sometimes made it hard to breathe. 

William was the reason he had agreed to Angstrom’s stupid deal in the first place and now he was stranded in a dimension without him, with a bunch other twisted versions of himself, who made the Viltrumite in him look like a puppy dog.  

He wasn’t weak, not by a longshot. He wasn’t afraid of these other Marks either. They could maybe kill him, but he wasn’t afraid of them, and he wasn’t afraid to kill. Not anymore. 

He'd hated it but his father had moulded his Viltrumite half well but with the prospect of having William back, the come down from committing mass murder, floating above his childhood home with memories of a time before he’d gotten his powers. A time before it had all turned to shit, next to a rare Mark who still had the ability to wear his heart on his sleeve, had allowed the humanity floodgates to open. 

He had let himself be vulnerable in front of the horde of Marks and had said the words he hadn’t allowed himself to say before. 

“I miss William.”  

Oh William! 

Mask had pulled that out of him. He didn’t know how. 

He hadn’t meant to say it. He hadn’t meant to open the dam. He hadn’t meant to bare his soul in front of those other predators. Yet the soft lilts, so similar to his own, so similar to Williams had pulled him from the mould.  

A mould he had never liked for himself. 

A mould he had never wanted to be shaped into. 

A mould he had never truly allowed himself to fully be set in. 

It was so easy to pull away from it and yet the emotions hit him like a ton of bricks now. 

Emotions were toxic to a Viltrumite. Thats what his father had told him growing up, and he understood that well. 

The human in him made it hard for the Viltrumite to be indifferent. To forget the irritating blood stained to his face and who it had come from; to forget the disgust he could picture William having with him, if he saw him now. To be at his strongest to avoid being the runt of the litter.  

What they all saw him as with the likes of the nickname ‘Meek’. 

The other Marks all had varying different levels of humanity, but Mask was the only one who reminded him of William.  

Not in the gay way, just in an emotional sense because William would’ve been that brave too, in the face of insane and psychotic versions of either one of them. He would’ve worn his heart on his sleeve too. 

He was sure that’s why he was drawn to Mask the most. Why he had stopped him from fighting Mohawk. Why he had validated him with his own weakness. 

His humanity was now clawing for the closest humane connection it could find amongst them. 

The two of them picked up bits of debris in silence and helped lug it over to a large pile where the sand was the flattest.  

Omni suggested they put the eroded metal spikes into a semi-circle and other broken bits of metal and rocks were made into a pathway from the ‘entrance’ that snaked out into a squiggly line from their camp so they could distinguish it from the air. The pathway was facing what they could only assume was north, but it was hard to tell with so much sand around them. 

The semi-circle was wide enough for each Mark to have leg room and be separated away from each other. Not that it did much in the form of protection. They were still exposed to the blaring heat, the debris would hardly survive one good punch, and if anyone was out there, they’d see their camp from a mile away. 

Still Mark supposed it was something productive especially for Omni who had taken the responsibility of their survival as his personal mission. If they were doing something maybe they wouldn’t all feel the hopelessness of the situation. 

However, two weeks into their imprisonment Mark felt like he was feeling beyond hopeless. 

Of course, Angstrom hadn’t come from them. 

They’d waited three days just to be sure, glued to their camp, when they didn’t need to relieve themselves, but no stupid green portals ever appeared, and several Marks got antsy resulting in more bickering and fights. 

Mohawk and Freak kept complaining about boredom and both kept antagonizing them all, Emp especially. 

Sinister snapped at anyone who even spoke to him and gave them a barrage of colourful threats to add. 

Emp would shout every other hour in frustration at being trapped like a dog in cage. 

Shiesty complained of hunger and thirst, cursing Angstrom’s name with every swear word under the sun. 

Omni, Molt, and Mute didn’t utter a word, choosing to conserve energy like they were at some yoga retreat. 

And himself and Mask sat in companionable silence when one of the others didn’t disturb it. 

On top of that. The heat in the day never wavered which caused them all to sweat, Mask especially although it was fortunate as it was a semi fluid that he lapped up when his mouth got to dry for him to handle.  

His sweat was salty and gross, but he didn’t care so long as it generated some saliva in his mouth.  

He knew his Viltrumite DNA was working overtime right now, and his body wasn’t nearly as dehydrated as it should be already. He didn’t even feel weak yet but that didn’t stop the irritation of it all settle in his bones. 

The hunger wasn’t bad yet but that didn’t stop him from thinking about gorging on some large fries and cheeseburger or two with a shake to wash it all down. A large chocolate one or maybe strawberry. 

He also felt dirty. He didn’t actually smell despite sweating buckets. None of them did even though none of them had been able to have a shower in days. He assumed it was the Viltrumite DNA again or maybe their suits were swallowing up any stenches, but he still felt grimy and the sand that kept getting in his suit didn’t help. 

He wanted to brush his teeth so badly. 

At night it stopped being hot but instead of a nice cool air, it was just freezing cold. 

Granted his suit was conditioned for extreme cold. He'd been in deep space after all but that didn’t mean him and the other variants couldn’t still feel the nip in the air. 

The first night allowed him to catch up on some needed sleep amazingly. He had eight hours before he and Emp, of all Marks had been paired together and took their turn keep watch.  

Mark had to suffer and listen to the boy yap and yap about his Empire. Mark droned him out as much as he could whilst counting to fourteen thousand and four hundred. The number of seconds in four hours according to Omni. 

Nothing appeared out of the ordinary. The moon lit up the desert though in the dark its bareness looked even worse. The sand hills lit in the moonlight created their own shadow pits and the debris in the distance made it look like ungodly creatures stalking the horizon. 

It was all hell. 

By day four they finally began their scouting. 

First, they had collected more debris and made a big pile of it. They analysed it all. There wasn’t anything of importance for them to use for sustenance. 

A couple hours later they sat down. 

Omni took charge of the little session which Mark noted the irritation from most of the group. 

“We need to work out a rough estimate of where we are on Earth, so our signs have meaning. Sure, we could just make the signs without knowing but if we do find anything, it would be wiser to understand the geographical flight patterns and get a better understanding of this planet post apocalypse.” Said Omni. 

“I already know where we are.” Said Molt in his dry and raspy voice as he floated upside down. 

“Care to share prison boy!” Spat Emp looking unimpressed at the other boy. 

Molt simply looked at him blankly behind the black lenses. 

“Well, you poster child for pro-choice, looking motherfucker! We’re exactly in the same spot we were in, in the other dimension. We're in Chicago, Illinois, above our childhood home, give or take as our camp is rather wide.” Said Molt with the energy of a dead slug that was somehow still cutting. 

Emp went to go charge for him, but Omni stopped him mid-flight. 

“How can you be sure of that Molt?” Asked Omni whilst holding back a raging Emp. 

“When Angstrom came and got me from Viltrumite prison, he had to get his weird technician people to take him into space in that other dimension to be able to use a portal to get to me. Thats why we all entered through those portals in one spot because he can’t do portals from other locations that aren’t same, in different dimension. So, we’re in Chicago. Not that there's a Chicago left to begin with.” Answered Molt, not remotely phased by Emp’s antics. 

“Fair enough! Ok so we have a starting point. Alright who here actually did well at Geography?” Said Omni still holding the other boy back. 

For just a second Mark felt like he was back in Highschool trying not to fall asleep whilst his teachers prattled on about things he didn’t really care about. He wasn’t a terrible student but most of his schoolwork was boring in the face of ‘becoming a superhero’ before he learnt the truth. 

So, things like Geography was never something he paid great attention too. He could name all the continents, enough countries and several states but that was about it. 

Sure, he could fly his way to several countries too but that was because he flown the routes enough. Now that he was aware he was in Chicago, he knew which way it essentially was to France but with no discerning telltale signs, it would be difficult to discern. 

Mask picked up a metal jagged pole and made a perfect large circle marking their location in their camp and then rest of them began doing their best to remember routes, the amount of time it took to fly thee, directions and locations around the globe.  

It was a messy process as it was clear Geography was not a strong suit for most of them but they a managed to achieve some sort of map and a slight sense of general direction. It wasn’t remotely perfect but some of the Marks felt a little more confident about scouting and finding their camp which from the air stood out amongst the sand. Though they made some massive X’s around the camp just to be on the safe side. 

Mute made a little shield thing out of a rusty piece of metal to cover Mask’s makeshift map and then they started making strategies to scout. 

Pairs, symbols, debris plotting, etc. 

Once that was done, Omni made the signal to begin scouting. Though not without an argument ensuing. 

Omni had suggested four Marks should stay behind, so that two could keep an eye on the camp as and two collect more debris, a little further out whilst the other six scout in pairs as well as begin their navigation sign trails. 

Omni suggested that Shiesty, Freak, Mohawk and Emp stay behind. 

All four had a problem with it. 

“What so you guys can horde any food or water that you find? Fuck off!” Snapped Shiesty. 

“Yeah, fuck that!” Spat Mohawk. 

“Yeah man that’s some bull. I’m bored as shit. I wanna go scouting!” Cried Freak. 

Mark didn’t have to see Omni’s eyes to know he was rolling them.  

“Are you guys gonna take this task seriously?” Said Omni through gritted teeth. 

Four days! Mark had wondered how long it would take for his Omni variant to start cracking at the seams.  

“WE’RE NOT CHILDREN! DON’T TALK TO US LIKE WE ARE! I RULE AN EMPIRE AND YOU WILL SHOW ME THAT RESPECT!” Screamed Emp suddenly getting in Omni’s face. 

He saw Mask shake his head in his peripheral vision and Mark just sighed. 

Four days before someone finally got tired of Omni asserting himself as the leader. Omni didn’t look remotely phased by Emp though.  

“ He is an emperor !” Added Freak tauntingly. 

“ Yeah, show him the respect he deserves. ” Added Mohawk imitating, Emp’s voice. 

“Personally Emp, I don’t think he cares that you’re an oh so powerful ruler.” Added in Sinister and Mark noted how much slicker and darker his taunting was than that of Mohawks and Freak’s. 

It gave him just the slightest shiver. 

If Emp even noticed the mocking by all three of them he didn’t comment on it and continued to stare down Omni. 

Omni didn’t back down either.  

Still tension and anticipation mixed in with the dry heat as each Mark watched the standoff. 

Some apprehensive, some excited and some stoic. 

Mark saw Emp’s fist curl and Omni’s jaw tighten. 

“Will you fucknuts hurry this up!” Suddenly came an irritated shout from Shiesty. “We’re wasting valuable time that could be spent looking for food and water!” 

Wow, he was the hangry type clearly. 

Neither Mark in the standoff flinched, so it took for Mute to shift slightly in between the two. Not enough to be threatening but enough to be in their sights. 

Omni’s demeanour relaxed just a fraction and then he took small step back. 

His face never wavering in its expression. 

“If you feel I’m treating you like a child then I apologise.” Said Omni, his voice somehow stoic, tight and dry all at the same time. 

He continued. 

“But that doesn’t answer my question. Are you gonna take this seriously?”  

Emp looked at him murderously. 

“I’m not trying to die in this shithole wasteland, so don’t worry daddy . You can count on me.” Answered Freak in a sing song voice. 

Mohawk just added a massive grin that was not comforting in the slightest. Shiesty didn’t even give him a response.  

Omni pinched his nose for a second before he spoke with a cold stillness in his voice. 

“Fine! Three of us we’ll stay behind. Seven of us we’ll go and scout. Two pairs of two and one pair of three. We'll go till sundown and come back to camp and report. If we find anything we  share . Stay together. Keep vigilant. We don’t need someone making a huge mistake because they couldn’t stay focused for more than one hour.”  

He continued. 

“Mask, Meek and Molt can I ask for you guys to stay at the camp and collect some more debris.” 

Mark wanted to scowl at his father wannabe. 

Why should he stay back just because the other Marks wanted to throw a temper tantrum? What happened if they did find food. Omni might actually share but the rest of them were questionable at best. 

He also didn’t understand why Omni was enabling them? He had basically asserted himself as the leader, not without verbal resistance but he was calling all the shots so far and he clearly had chosen those four to stay because he didn’t think them capable of doing the work in the first place. 

Why heed to them now? 

Maybe he realised he didn’t have as much control over them as he hoped. 

Mark wanted to scowl but he chose not to.  

Breaking free from the mould was easy enough, getting rid of the shape wasn’t quite so easy. sure, he had never fully been shaped but he had never fully not been either. 

He was being asked to stay back because he was reliable in that sense. A good soldier. 

Him and Mask. The quiet ones. The ones who would do as their told, no argument needed. The ones who were underestimated by the rest of them because of their emotions. He didn’t think Molt was like that one bit, but Molt had no doubt demonstrated to Omni he could be reasonable. (Considering he had been excited to torture Angstrom days ago.) 

So, he was asking them to stay behind. 

“Fine!” Mask replied curtly. 

“Whatever!” Replied Molt. 

Mark just nodded his head.  

“Thank you. Mohawk you’re with me. Sinister, Freak and Shiesty you three go together. Emp. you and Mute go together. Let's cover as much ground as we can. Remember our estimated numbers and try not to kill each other, Let's move!” Barked Omni before grabbing a large pile of spikes and flying off.  

The others proceeded to do the same. 

Mark watched in silence as the other Marks took off though he had to admit he was happy to have little distance from them. 

Omni was the most mature of them, but he still acted too much like him.  

The rest of them were annoying, unhinged and loud. Except for Mute of course but he seemed almost too stoic and that uniform did nothing to make Mark eager to be around him. 

Mask he was fine with, but Molt was another story. 

His appearance was unsettling.  

Not in a phobic way, just it made him uncomfortable to know that something terrible must’ve happened to him, for him to still look like that, whilst Mark was there fresh faced and smooth skinned, other than the smear specs of dried blood he hadn’t managed to get rid of. 

Still, his face was on pure display whereas most of the others were covered except for Mohawk and Mute. 

If Mark was in Molts position, he was sure, he would resent all his other variants for their non disfigured skin.  

He wondered if he had always looked that or if he had looked like the rest them at one point. 

It felt awkward to even ask.  

He hadn’t spoken to Molt before they had invaded the other dimension. 

He had no clue what his story was, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted too. Somehow, if they shared tales, he felt his own story would fall flat against that of Molt’s especially as he was certain prison was involved in his. Judging by how vehement he was about not being nick names prisoner. 

“You gonna ask about the scars, pretty boy?” Came Molt’s gravelly voice all of sudden. 

Mark slightly jolted and realised Molt was staring directly at him because he had been staring at him whilst lost in thought about him. 

Resentment in the flesh. Called it! 

“No!” Replied Mark a little defensively. 

“Good! I wasn’t gonna tell you anyway.” He replied gruffly before turning to Mask. 

“You want camp duty or debris duty?” 

Mask just shrugged. 

Molt turned to him with an arched brow, though without actual eyebrows it was more of an arched vein. Disturbing! 

“You stay at the camp. We’ll collect the debris.” Said Mark suddenly. 

Though he would fight any of these other Marks if it really came down to it, he hated how small he almost felt around them. Telling Molt this was his one piece of power he felt he had in this flock of Marks. 

Molt nodded and then began hovering in the air with his legs crossed. 

Mark turned to Mask who gestured his head at him and the two raised in the air flying the opposite direction of all the other Marks. 

They didn’t fly too far away. Maybe twenty minutes south from camp. This area was a minefield of debris. Tall, rusted spikes, jagged shapes, massive squares were imbedded into the sand. 

They looked around carefully. There were a few burnt-out cars. 

So, Omni was probably right about the planet being in a post-apocalyptic state. 

They found no food and water, but they did bring a bunch more debris to their pile. 

They intercepted Emp on one trip who looked near red in the face and Mark noted there was a bit of blood on his suit which was definitely not there before. Mark was pretty certain Mute wasn’t tolerating any of Emps bullshit.  

On a different trip they intercepted Freak coming back to the pile, who was sporting a black eye all of sudden. It didn’t stop him from jabbing a spike in their direction with a rathe sadistic grin before waving at them and flying off and Mark couldn’t tell if his gesture was meant to be playful or not. 

Mark didn’t even want to know how he had gotten it. 

After an hour of this, he and Mask decided to call it a day and returned to camp. 

Sinister was there with some debris in his arms, speaking to Molt.

Molts back was facing them but even from a distance Mark could tell that he was tensing. His back was stiff and his fist was coiled. 

He could see Sinister’s face though, and he was smirking. It was an ugly one that set Mark on edge. Like he was willingly flying onto the savage planet. 

As they approached them, Sinister tilted his head ever so slightly to acknowledge their coming arrival. He tilted one of the spikes in his hand at them as though he were tipping his hat to them and then he took off with another smirk that was all teeth and Mark suddenly notice how sharp they were. 

It was an unnerving sight. 

Mark watched him fly for a minute before looking back at Molt. 

His goggles obscured his eyes, but Mark could tell he was pissed.  

Mask came up to his side. 

“Are you alright man?” He asked a little concerned for him. 

“I’m fine!” He gritted out and turned from them, deciding that the pile was the most interesting thing in the world. 

Mask looked at him and he shrugged. 

If he didn’t want to talk about it then he wouldn’t push it. 

The three of them kept silent with the other Marks dropping by every now and then. 

When sundown arrived, all of them slowly filtered in. 

None of them looked happy. None of them had food or water. 

They made their reports on their findings and trails. 

Nothing! 

The routine would stay the same, with the only changes being the pairs except for him, Mask and Molt always staying behind. 

They'd collect more debris; they’d take watch of the camp and wait in the blaring sun till sundown. 

At the two-week mark, the Meek variant was sure he and his variants would die in this hellhole, and they had no one to blame but themselves. 

Chapter Text

William:  

William blinked a couple times and then took a big gulp of the juice that had sat untouched ever since their breakfast, not breakfast time, little session began. 

When he swallowed, he looked at the other boy and took a deep breath. 

“So let me see if I have this correctly. You! Are a different version of my best friend Markus Sebastian Grayson from another dimension entirely but you’re still a half alien born to Omni Man and Debbie Grayson and you’re still the superhero known as Invincible. You work for some mysterious emperor who’s fighting some grand multidimensional threat that you somehow need my help with as to why your mysterious colleague kidnapped me two weeks ago to another futuristic dimension but it's actually the same year here as it is in my world but more technologically advanced and alien like as this version of Earth is naturally intermixed. Also said colleague who wasn’t meant to kidnap me but is going through some personal shit, kidnapped me with not living zombie corpses but dead ones instead and the creep who made them in my world is a good guy in this dimension and has been making them for the cause and isn’t gonna turn me into one. On top of that that you have curly hair and where your snapback backwards like you’re one of those TikTok douche bags about to hop on a trend because his girlfriend begged him too and lowkey he just wanted to post a thirst trap to have the comment section simp over him. Did I miss anything out?”  

The boy who was Mark and somehow not Mark snorted. 

“No... that pretty much covers it. There’s a lot more detail that will get better explained to you but otherwise that’s the basics. Although I’m personally not a TikTok man myself. We don’t even have it in this particular dimension but the dimension that I actually came from did and I didn’t get the hype. More of a Gram man myself when we had it. Not opposed to some thirsting in the comments though.” Replied the Mark with a small smirk. 

William just stared at him. He realised he was probably joking around with him to ease the tension, but William was just shocked at just how much this dude looked and sounded like his Mark.  

His voice was wrong sliglty deeper but it was close enough and that was a joke his Mark would totally make. 

Weird! 

When he had first picked him up off the floor, relief had flooded through his entire system. He had been so happy to see Mark especially after having witnessed the fight between him and his dad.  

He had been so worried before but then as William looked at Mark, he knew something was wrong. 

First Mark was wearing shorts. Mark hadn’t worn shorts since they were twelve years old. The day the boy had gotten his first pair of khakis it was over for his short's era and nearly every other possible pants era he could’ve potentially had. Then he noticed the single curl coming out of the hole in the snapback that he was wearing backwards. 

William had always known Mark to be quite humble when it came it to most things. He was a good-looking guy with a semi famous author for a dad, one of the most popular girlfriends in school and he got to go to comic con every single year, and he didn’t even brag about it. 

Sure, there was a few things he was cocky about like clash crash level but mostly Mark was a humble dude. 

There was one particular vanity Mark Grayson possessed, however. 

That was his hair. 

Since William had known the boy, Marks hair had always been perfect and on the far and few between days it wasn’t prefect, Mark strove to make it so.  

It wasn’t something Mark was consciously vain about. William realised that but the day he learned what hair gel was, it was over for his locks to be anything else but perfectly straight, slick and glossy. 

That hadn’t changed in years.  

And whilst Mark wasn’t consciously vain about his hair, Mark did nothing consciously to ruin it either. 

Hats were not something stylistically that Mark wore. He barely even wore any of the hoodies he owned or his jackets with hoods. If it was pouring down with rain, he’d have an umbrella.  

One time he didn’t have one, he covered his hair all the way from school to his house with a paper bag. 

Mark did anything to avoid covering his hair and flattening it. 

The only time he was willing to wear something over his head was for Gym class if the sport they were playing required them to wear some kind of head gear and his former job at Burger Mart where he had no choice but to wear the hat and he only did that so he could buy Seance dog crap. 

So, looking at Mark wearing shorts and a snapback, with curls in his hair weirdly set off alarm bells. 

William's mind had then begun to think more logically about the situation he was in. 

Before he’d been told the truth he had assumed he'd been kidnapped the prior night, and Mark had been missing after fighting his dad as Invincible. 

His dad had killed people. Killed the immortal. Beaten the crap out of Mark and devastated half of Chicago. 

So, Mark holding him up all smiles and laughter was concerning. Then there was the fact that he had still been kidnapped. At first, he thought maybe Mark had been kidnapped too. It would explain him being missing instead of the alternative William had been plaguing his mind over for hours. 

Then William thought some more. 

Why would Mark be cool about being kidnapped? How would Mark have been kidnapped? He was invincible.  

Son of Omni Man. Probably the second most powerful superhero in the world or at least on his way to it. 

Who could kidnap him?  

Mark had struggled against the Reanimen he supposed but he was still super strong and he had now taken down a massive kaiju which didn’t seem relevant in the wake of Omni Man killing the Immortal but William had noticed that in the background and had been super proud of Mark taking down that creature by himself. 

So realistically he didn’t think anyone could just kidnap Mark.  

So that left William with a growing knot in his stomach. 

If his hunch was right, then something was terribly wrong, and fear started creeping back into system. 

“Mark, wh... what’s going on?” William had asked and he couldn’t stop the nervousness from popping out on every word. 

He had seen Marks face shift and then suddenly he was sitting him down on a chair and telling him about having breakfast. 

Not too long after that he was explaining to him that he was in a different dimension, talking to an alternate version of Mark and that his help was needed to save the multiverse. 

William liked comic books. 

Not as much as his Mark but he liked them. It was at this moment where he wished he was much more of a comic book geek like Mark was. He would’ve probably had a better reaction to this information than fainting. 

After that embarrassing moment he had awoken strangely feeling better and more energised. The food he had eaten was apparently very nutritious and he even managed to sit in the chair himself. 

Afterwards he and Mark not Mark had spoken some more.  

Well... Mark not Mark had spoken. William more so had been shouting, screaming and panicking but his methods had still proved affective. It still got him several answers and once he had calm down a bit, he did his best to actually absorb those answers. 

He was in another dimension. He’d been there for a little over two weeks. He supposedly wasn’t going to die here.  

He gulped all the juice in the glass before summarising everything in a rather deadpan tone that didn’t accurately portray any of the emotions he was feeling at the precise moment. 

Mark responding with his witty comeback didn’t do anything for any of his emotions either, but he was still shocked. 

It was Mark but it wasn’t. 

It was the same face, the same voice but it wasn’t.  

William couldn’t help but just stare at him. 

“Ok I can see that joke didn’t help at tall. Big revelation and adjustment, I know but It’s not permanent William. You're gonna go home and you’ll see your real dimension with your real family and friends and of course your real Mark. Not to mention you'll...." Mark not Mark started but William cut him off. 

"My Mark isn't here? Do you know where he is?"  

William wasn’t sure why Mark had taken the central focus of this next enquiry but him not being here was strange. After all he was Invincible, not William. What could he do against some Multiverse threat that Mark couldn’t? 

Sure, a Mark was in front of him, but wouldn’t his Mark still be a better option than himself? Weren't two Marks better than one? 

William didn’t have any superpowers. What could he possibly do to help these people?  

Also Mark not being here was terrifying. 

This Mark wasn’t his. He claimed William wouldn’t be hurt here but William didn’t know that for sure and he had already told him that his actual kidnapper didn’t exactly follow protocol in coming to get him. 

What was stopping this colleague or anyone else from hurting him?  

Was Wasian Timothee Chalamet here gonna protect him if someone tried? Would he be willing to break a man's jaw for him like his own Mark would? 

“Uh... back in your dimension I believe.” Answered Mark not Mark a little thrown off. 

William rolled his eyes.  

Well, that was obvious if he wasn’t here. 

“Why isn’t he here?” Asked William folding his arms crossly. 

“Oh... well... uh... I... don’t really know.” Stuttered Mark not Mark. 

William just frowned at him. 

Mark not Mark winced and continued. 

“I mean... it’s just... well I’m not really.... I'm not in the extraction or researcher's department so I don’t really have that particular answer as to why your personal Mark isn’t here... in this dimension.”  

“So, who is in one of those departments so I can learn said answer?” William replied irritated. 

“Well quite a few people and since you’re up, you’ll meet all the important people. First and foremost, though there’s channels to go through.” Said Mark not Mark with a nervous grin. 

If William wasn’t feeling so emotionally stimulated, he would’ve marvelled in the fact that he was making Invincible of all heroes' squirm, but this situation was irking him too much to think on it. 

He’d been kidnapped by robot zombies and while it wasn’t exactly stated it was implied that he was expected to just be ok with that.  

He didn’t even have his Mark here with him. His family was probably sick with worry and now these people expected his help. 

He let out a harsh sigh. 

“What channels?” He almost spat out. 

“Well, you’ve eaten now. So next comes ‘Decontamination’.” Replied Mark not Mark. 

William looked at him with pure alarm. 

Mark not Mark flushed. 

“I mean a shower. It's a shower. It’s not like...I’m not personally... sorry it’s apparently protocol to call it... I don’t usually do debriefing. We have others for that, but we’ve had a couple setbacks in the last couple months, and it was suggested that you should get a familiar face. Decontamination is just a shower. You’ve been asleep for two weeks after all.”  

William felt heat rise in his cheeks. 

He had smelt himself earlier. It occurred to him that Mark not Mark could probably smell him too. 

Well, that was embarrassing. 

“And after that?” Asked William now losing some of his bravado and staring at the table. 

“Evaluation which is just a small medical assessment and then I believe you’ll meet the emperor. I think. Like I said I don’t usually do debriefs.” Stated Mark not Mark. 

William nodded at that. 

Despite how insane everything was right now, a shower sounded good. 

Mark not Mark encouraged William to finish the last of the juice in the jug whilst he cleared the table. 

William watched him walk back over to the wall where the food had come from. He saw him press a button on a panel in the wall and suddenly a different hole appeared in the wall.  

Mark not Mark put all the empty dishes and cutlery in one hole which then closed itself. 

Mark looked at him with rather a placid smile and then walked over to the other side of the room where another panel was on the wall next to the window. He pressed a few buttons on this panel and suddenly a door was forming in wall and was sliding sideways. 

William could now see it was a wardrobe. 

He watched him rumble about in the wardrobe before picking out some clothes and placing them on the bed. Alongside a towel and a pair of shoes. 

The clothes looked rather normal. William strangely was expecting a white leather bodysuit or something. 

He also had a pair of slippers which he brought over to William. 

“I know you hate walking out of a shower barefoot.... well, I think you do.” Said Mark not Mark thoughtfully. 

He did. It was gross having fresh but wrinkly feet touch the cold bare floor, although this particular floor was warm against his feet, but he hated the idea of wet feet touching this floor even more than a normal one. It was so clean and shiny. 

It occurred to him that this Mark must have his own William to make such a comment. He wondered why his William wasn’t the one here helping the multiverse? 

He'd ask later. 

William got up, hyper aware of the blood flow in his legs now. 

He really did feel a lot better. Maybe he should eat some more. 

“So, where's the shower?” Asked William turning to Mark not Mark. 

“You were crawling to it when I arrived. You’ll find it’s easy to use compared to everything else in this place for a first timer and all the necessary toiletries are in there.” He answered plainly. 

William nodded at that and then looked at Mark not Mark expectantly. 

“Oh right.... you need privacy. There will be a basket for you to put your clothes in there. I will be back in forty-five minutes. To check in on you. Don't worry about the clothes on the bed, they will fit. So, I’ll catch you in a bit.” Said Mark not Mark with some awkward finger bangs before turning and leaving the room through the other door. 

William’s eyes stayed glued to the retreating boys back, a giant ‘22’ and curls poking under the snapback filling his vision until he was gone. 

William for a split second wondered if he could run away and escape this strange place. Could he really afford to stay with people who were willing to work with D.A Sinclair?  

Was it even fair to hold that against them if they were trying to save the multiverse? The multiverse wasn’t just one world. It was all worlds. 

William shook his head. 

Even if he did try to escape, where would he even go? 

This wasn’t his home or his city. This was the citadel of Ogachic.  

Stupid ass name. 

He could see outside was vastly different from his own world, how would he get about? Who would he go to? What would he even do?  

He wanted to go home but they had brought him here. They would have to bring him back. If they even brought him back. 

Would they? 

Mark not Mark said they would. That he’d be able to go home soon, but how soon was that? 

William sighed. 

Escape plans would have to be put on halt. 

He walked over to the bed and stared at the clothes for a moment. They weren’t really Williams personal style, but they looked comfy at least.  

He picked up the towel that was pleasantly fluffy to the touch and then walked over to the door in the wall that was supposed to be the bathroom. 

To his surprise he realised watching Mark not Mark leave that there was a button on the wall to the side of both doors that he hadn’t noticed before. 

He pressed it and the door slid up fast and smooth revealing the bathroom.  

Huh! 

Gray and black, not white. He hadn’t expected the change in colour, but it was a welcome change. 

Spacious, futuristic looking though arguably the most normal looking part of the place. Bathtub in the middle of the floor. Shower in left the corner. Sink and mirror with a cabinet in the right corner and a black tiled wall space at the back with an entrance into another little room to what William assumed was a toilet behind the wall. There was even a little booth chair attached to the wall at the right side of the bathtub and a small window above it with spray on the little ledge under it. 

The floor had the same marble shiny grey look as the other floor. 

God William felt poor in this place and his bathroom at home was nice. 

William saw the woven basket in left hand side corner of the room.  

He put the towel and slippers on the chair and got to peeling off his clothes which he now realised were not his. 

Oh! 

Someone had changed his clothes whilst he was unconscious. 

Creepy motherfuckers. 

Someone would be getting a tongue lashing from him. 

He tossed them in the basket and walked up to the square box that was the shower. Of course there was a chair in here too. 

He contemplated having a bath to really soak his problems away but Mark not Mark would be back soon. 

He stepped in and to his surprise the shower was easy. 

A small panel on the side with picture symbols gave clear indications of what to do. He got medium hot water with lemon scented soap and began scrubbing himself clean. 

The heat felt soothing on his skin, and it felt good to relieve himself of the building grime that was on him. 

William took his time allowing himself to feel fully clean and washed his hair twice, once he realised how dry and greasy it was at the same time. He was no Mark when it came to his hair, but he was man who took care of himself. 

To his surprise, the shower had a drying setting and William felt comfortable heat dry every part of him. 

William stepped out of the shower but even with dry feet he put on the slippers which were super soft and he wrapped the towel around him before heading over to the sink. 

He took a look at himself in the mirror, scanning every bit of skin with pure focus. 

He didn’t see any difference from the last time he looked in a mirror, but he wanted to be certain that no modifications had been done to him. 

His mind pondered on Rick and he felt his chest jolt.  

Two weeks! 

He wondered if those Government guys were helping him? Was he ok? Would he be able to come back? If Rick was brought to this Dimension could the Sinclair of this world help him? 

William shivered. 

He didn’t care if this Sinclair was supposedly good, he would never go near him more or less bring Rick in front of him. 

He was still making robot zombies, good cause or not. 

William looked at himself again and noted the haunted look in his eyes now. 

He didn’t like that look. It didn’t suit his face. 

He found the toiletries Mark not Mark had spoken of and got to brushing his teeth, creaming his skin, putting on deodorant and brushing his hair. 

He felt good that he was at least fresh. 

Now, he just had to find out what the hell was going on! 

He still had so many questions that his mind hadn’t been coherent enough during his screaming to ask. 

He pulled off the towel and threw it in the basket and then left the bathroom. 

To his horror Mark not Mark was sat on the bed. 

He looked at him. His jaw dropped. 

William’s mind short circuited for a second, his body frozen. 

Mark not Mark flushed and then turned his head. 

“Oh shit! Dude!” He yelped out. 

William was able to think again. 

“Mark! What are you doing?” William shouted now covering himself. 

“I said I was coming back! Why would you walk out the bathroom naked?” He cried out defensively. 

“You said I had forty-five minutes!” Yelled William. 

“I gave you fifty!” Retorted Mark not Mark! 

“Mark!” William cried again, his cheeks flushing a bright red. 

“I’ll be outside.” Mark said and in a blink of an eye he was gone. 

William felt his heart race. 

Great! Within less than two hours he had been picked off the floor like a baby animal being held by the scruff of its neck. Had smelt disgusting in front of an alternate version of his best friend. Had fainted in front of him and now he had seen him butt ass naked. 

Just great! 

William ran over to the clothes throwing them on with speed, not an ache present in his body now.  

Ten minutes passed before William heard the mechanical sliding of the other door. He watched a reluctant Mark not Mark come back into the room with his hand over his eyes. 

“William? Are you dressed now?”  

William squeezed his eyes tight in annoyance and embarrassment. 

“Yes, I’m dressed now!” He gritted out. 

Mark not Mark uncovered his eyes. 

“Great! Let us swiftly move on.” He said with an awkward smile and then asked, “Are you comfortable?”  

Was he comfortable? 

He’d been kidnapped and taken to another dimension. Comfortable wasn’t the word he would currently describe himself as. 

He wanted to say something scathing but instead just nodded his head. He wanted to get on with whatever this was as quickly as possible. 

Mark not Mark nodded and lifted his arm to his face. 

“Mark 22 here. We’re ready when you are doc.” Said Mark not Mark, into some kind of watch device on his wrist. 

“Mark 22?” Asked William confused. 

“I’ll explain later.” He replied. 

Silence descended among them. William’s mind was reeling. 

Eventually he heard click clacking again from outside and moments later the door Mark not Mark had walked through slid up again and in came a woman. 

She was slender with tan, brown skin and green eyes. She was pretty and tallish. She was young by the looks of her face, anywhere in her late twenties to early thirties. She wore orange spectacles and had dark red hair closer to burgundy that she wore in a sleeked back ponytail.   

She carried a black brief case with her and wore all black except for the white lab jacket. 

William watched her carefully as she walked into the room with ease and confidence as well as professionalism. 

She wasn’t alone. A young boy was with her. He looked like he was maybe thirteen or fourteen and William had to wonder if he was her son or something. The resemblance was uncanny. 

They both stopped next to Mark not Mark and smiled at William. 

“Good afternoon, Mr Clockwell. I’m glad to see you’re up and well. I’m doctor Ruby Connors and I’ll be taking your evaluation. This here is my colleague and assistant Rudy Connors who will be taking notes. Before we begin, do you have any questions for me?”  

Her tone was husky but smooth and calming almost. 

“What will this evaluation entail?” He asked, his voice tighter than he would’ve liked. 

Her smile didn’t waver.  

“Nothing you have to worry about Mr Clockwell. A simple medical assessment that any standard Primary Care Physician would carry out. Do I have your consent to touch you Mr Clockwell?” She replied smoothly. 

William took a deep breath to calm himself. 

Surrounded by friends. Thats what he told him. 

“Sure, and it’s William.” He said hating how formal his surname sounded in her mouth. 

“William it is.” She replied with a small smile and then she put her briefcase on the floor and opened it. 

William watched in awe as an entire Labatory basically came rising out of it. 

It shouldn’t have shocked him.  

He'd seen fooda and the wardrobe pop out of the wall now.  

Why would this be any different? 

Dr Connors grabbed the chair Mark not Mark had brought earlier and sat down. 

The kid Rudy began pulling out some stuff from the briefcase and placed them on the new lab desk that was next to them before grabbing a clipboard and pen and something rectangular. 

He brought up to his mouth. 

“Starting the medical assessment of subject nineteen at approximately fifty-seven minutes past two. Subject is William Clockwell, eighteen, from Earth dimension A-133. Subject nineteen is a Caucasian male, at 5’7. Blood type is ab negative. No history of any health ailments detected in his initial bio scan.”  

William arched his brow at the kid. 

For someone who looked what? Thirteen, maybe Fourteen, he sure as hell didn’t speak like it. Also, he was pretty sure he was 5’8. 

“Thank you, Rudy.” Replied Dr Connors and then began their evaluation. 

William was relieved to realise that she meant her words when she said the medical assessment would be simple.  

She checked his pupils with a flashlight. Made him follow her fingers and count how many she held up. She asked him how he was feeling everywhere, asked him some random and strange questions, then asked him a couple personal ones. She made him walk in a straight line. Checked his mouth, swabbed it, checked his blood pressure, took some blood and listened to his heartbeat with an advanced stethoscope as Rudy wrote down the notes. 

He was in perfect health, and she was 93% certain that what he was drugged with was flushed out of his system, but a blood test would confirm for sure. 

Rudy then spoke in the device that William realised was a recorder and then packed everything away, leaving just a normal looking briefcase. 

“That concludes our assessment, William. I will get to running your blood test as soon as possible and if you’ll permit, I would like to run a more advanced medical assessment at a later date but for now in my professional opinion you’re as healthy as a horse.” Said Dr Connors. 

Well that was something at least. 

“So, do I meet this emperor of yours now?” Asked William cautiously. 

“Not yet. You will but there's someone else you should meet first.” She replied. 

“Who?” Asked William suspiciously. 

She didn’t reply to him and instead lifted her wrist. She was wearing the same wrist device that Mark not Mark was wearing. 

“You can come in now.”  

Williams eyes looked over to the door where it once again slid up. 

In walked two people and William recognised both of them. 

“William?” Came the surprised voice of Amber Bennett next to Goth Eve Wilkins???? 

Amber:  

Amber stood in the new room that was practically a mirror image of the one she had woken up in. 

After Eve had dropped the bombshell of her helping save the multiverse, Amber had had a panic attack.  

Amber felt herself breathing hard, then she was stumbling out of the chair and onto the floor. 

Panic attacks and Amber was an old friendship that went back from when she seven years old.  

She did the one thing she always did when they occurred. She began tugging on her hair.  

During her childhood, her parents' marriage was exceedingly toxic and abusive, and Amber would get really scared.  

Things often got too loud and physical and Amber couldn’t breathe properly anytime it started but because she would hide in her room, her mother never knew how bad her respiratory problems got. 

It got to a point where Amber had blacked out once and she had been lucky to have been found by her mother and taken to the hospital. After that Amber decided to tug on her hair so she could distract herself and be able to breathe.  

After her father was finally out of her life, the panic attacks became minimal but the need to tug on her hair and rip strands out became a habit that her mom even got her into therapy over. It was why she always wore her hair up.  

Of course, she didn’t have her scrunchy and being told that she had been kidnapped to help save the multiverse was a stressful revelation.  

Everything around her had become muffled and hazy and for once tugging her hair was not working. She felt her chest burn and her heartbeat race and then suddenly Eve’s arms had found her. 

She then began gently singing in her ear, clutching one of her hands tight in her own, the other rubbing circles on her back. 

They maybe stayed like that for ten minutes or longer until she calmed down. 

Amber took sharp shuddering breaths, rocking violently in Eves arms until she managed to breathe consistently and got a hold of her limbs. 

Eve stopped singing but whispered soothing words in her ear. 

“You're ok. Take deep breaths.” 

It took another ten minutes for Amber to fully be calm and stand up. Her chest heavy from the exertion. 

“Here.” Said Eve and Amber turned to her find a pink glass of water in her hand. 

She must’ve used her power to make that appear as she had cleared the table. 

Amber was hesitant to drink it, but her throat was rather dry and on fire. She took the glass and backed it one gulp.  

Fresh and crisp! That type of water you drank at 3am to curb your thirst.  

When she was done, she put the glass on the table and looked at Eve. 

“Thanks.” Amber muttered quietly. 

“No problem and I’m sorry. I know this is a lot to handle. I should’ve been more careful with your debrief.” Said Eve apologetically. 

“Debrief?” Questioned Amber confused. 

“Yeah, that's what this is. This meeting I mean. A debrief. It’s mandatory for everyone who comes to this dimension to have one. With a familiar face and food to ease you into what's going on. It doesn’t always work out unfortunately. We can postpone the other channels for a few hours if you wanna rest some more?” Stated Eve, her tone gentle and her face tinged with concern. 

Amber thought for a moment. Resting would be nice.... but no.  

She’d been here long enough. She had her family to get back too and maybe Mark. 

She was rested enough. She just needed to stay calm and stay focused. 

She shook her head and took a deep breath. 

“No. I wanna get this over with. What's next?” 

Decontamination and an Evaluation. 

Thankfully that was just a shower and a health assessment. 

The shower was nice. It helped relax some of her frayed nerves. 

The evaluation went well enough, and Dr Connors believed she was healthy though Amber now had a pink asthma pump after she had asked Eve to produce one.  

Dr Connors seemed ok. Easy enough to converse with though a deep intelligence lingered in her eyes that made Amber feel weary. She looked sweet enough, but Amber was sure she was sitting with another powerful woman in the room, whether she had powers or not. 

Even her assistant who looked like he was related to her seemed heavily intelligent and observant. 

She wanted to ask him about subject twenty-three and his A133 comment but was a little unnerved by him even more so than Dr Connors. 

Her musings were interrupted when Dr Connors got some kind of beeping on a device on her wrist and then her and her assistant packed up. 

“He’s ready for us. We’ll be heading over now. Amber, would you care to accompany us?” Asked Dr Connors politely. 

“To where?” Asked Amber hesitantly. 

“You’ll see.” She replied cryptically. 

Amber just stared at her. 

“You could always wait here and delay getting answers any further.” She replied with an arched brow. 

Sly!  

She narrowed her eyes at her. 

Eve then rested her hand on her shoulder.  

“Amber please, trust us. You'll be happy for this.” Said Eve with certainty. 

Happy and trust were choice words, but she wanted answers, and no one had tortured her so far. 

“Fine!” Amber replied. 

“Excellent. Let us proceed.” Said Dr Connors and then she turned on her heel and walked towards the exit. Her assistant right behind her. 

Amber paused but Eve held out a hand towards her, her smile still warm. 

Amber took it reluctantly and Eve dragged her to the door and out the room. 

The corridor looked like if a spaceship also moonlighted as a hotel. The walls were lined in white with more pink and blue light strips adding some retro but needed colour to the place. The floor was still shiny grey, and they passed a bunch white doors imbedded into the walls that Amber assumed had other people in them, but the corridor was designed with square rings every few meters and more of those panels on the walls. 

They saw no one on their journey but Amber couldn’t stop staring at the place as Eve dragged her along. 

After a few minutes they stopped in a different corridor outside a similar looking white door. 

“Right, I’ll call you both in once done.” Said Dr Connors. 

Eve just nodded her head, and they watched them disappear into the new room. 

Eve turned to her, having let go of her hand when they arrived. 

“You, ok?” Asked Eve in a quiet tone. 

No! 

Amber just nodded and Eve arched her brow. 

“You don’t have to sugarcoat anything. You have every right to feel scared, frustrated or pissed. You can say that, and I’ll understand. I don’t want to see you panic again.” Said Eve gently. 

She just looked at Eve for a moment really studying her. 

Once upon a time she had been the new girl. A complete loner and then miraculously after one summer had become a social butterfly that everyone wanted to befriend. 

She never really had much of an opinion on Eve Wilkins during their school years. It was nothing personal. Herself and Eve never really ran in the same circles, yet dating Mark had allowed for her to finally get to know the girl a little outside of classes. 

She had been easy and fun to talk too. 

It had been nice to just hang out whilst helping the community and Amber could tell that Eve had needed the invite that day. 

She had kept her informed and calm over the six days that Mark had been ‘Hit by a bus.’  

It was easy to talk to Eve Wilkins. Comforting even and Amber hated that because she absolutely wanted to be mad at everyone here for kidnapping her, for putting her through a rollercoaster of raw emotional turmoil since she’d woken up. For taking her away from her life, her family and Mark.  

She didn’t even know if he was alive.  

Two weeks! 

If he was alive then he would need support and of course she wasn’t there to support him.  

She wanted to be angry at everyone including Eve and she hated that feeling more than anything. 

Because who gave her the right to be angry when the multiverse needed her help? It wasn’t even just a single person or a neighbourhood or even the world. It was the entire universe. Multiple universes needed help. 

How could she even be selfish and be thinking about her own problems right now?  

Eve had left their world and was willing to do her part for whatever needed to be done. Furthermore, Eve was a superhero who faced danger every other day. Risked her life to save millions. 

Her being scared and angry seemed insignificant in the face of that. 

She was still terrified, but her panic attack had been draining and now she was just left with a numbness that didn’t have anything left to give. 

“I’m feeling a lot of things right now Eve, but I don’t really have the energy to say it all more or less have another panic attack unless you and Dr Connors lied and there's something truly monstrous in that room.” 

Eve let a small chuckle escape her at that. 

“As long as you know I’m here. If you scrounge up the energy, I’m here to vent.” Said Eve leaning against the wall. 

Amber just nodded and leaned up against the wall. 

She closed her eyes for a few minutes trying to find a calm balance, whilst silence descended between them. 

It gave Amber some small comfort, but she was hyper aware of every sound in the distance. Just waiting for whatever was coming her way. 

The minutes passed by and then she heard the familiar beeping sound. 

Eve was wearing one of those wrist things, like Dr Connors. 

She watched Eve press something in her ear and then turned to her.  

“We can go in now.” She said and then was pressing a button on the wall and the door slid up. 

Amber felt her heartbeat pulse for just a second as she stepped behind Eve. 

Her eyes found Dr Connors first and then to her surprise William. 

She blurted his name in surprise. 

William was here! 

What William doing here? 

“Amber?” He replied just as shocked. 

To Ambers further surprise, she rushed forward encasing him in a giant hug. She felt his hesitance for just a second before he hugged her back just as tightly. 

Despite everything she was feeling, she truly was happy to see William. He was Marks dorky best friend who over the past six months of her relationship with him, she had probably spent more time with than she had Mark.  

Well, that was probably a slight exaggeration, but it was close enough. 

Granted, it was usually to ask him where Mark was half the time, but she had gotten used to William’s sassy charm and awkward nature to appreciate his own person as opposed to him just being Mark’s best friend.  

She pulled away from him and noticed his eyes were scanning her from head to toe like he was trying to discern something about her.  

Did he think she wasn’t real or something? 

She was about to ask him if he was ok but noticed someone in her peripheral vision standing off to the side of them. She turned her head and felt her chest seize. 

“Mark!”  

Amber’s legs moved on their own accord. You would’ve thought she was Invincible with how fast she moved towards him.  

Mark smiled bracing himself for a hug and was thrown off completely when Ambers lips captured his in an intense kiss. 

It was all she had wanted to do since she had witnessed the fight.  

She couldn’t believe it. He was here. Alive and well but something was... wrong. 

His kiss. His kiss was wrong. 

Amber’s eyes opened and she pulled back from him. His face was surprised and flushed. 

Amber then took him in.  

There was a curl poking out of a snapback.  

Since when did Mark have curly hair? Or wear snapbacks? 

She had gained the impression that Mark was very proud of his hair during the course of their relationship and she had never seen him cover it up, other than when he had been working at Burger Mart. 

Even his Invincible suit didn’t cover his hair which was straight and styled to perfection. Had Mark been here for two weeks and it had gone naturally curly? 

That didn’t explain his kiss being wrong. 

Maybe he was just surprised. They had basically broken up before his fight with Omni Man. 

Still, something was wrong. 

She was looking at Mark and yet somehow, she wasn’t. 

Like he was there but tilted at wrong angle or something. 

Mark cleared his throat. 

“Wow! That was...” He blew out some air “One hell of a greeting. Maybe I should start being an Amber man if it means that kind of action more often.” He blew out air again “A kiss and an eyeful, I’m on a roll today.” He finished with a shake of his head. 

Amber registered a throaty sound from behind her. Probably William though she didn’t address it because Amber was trying to make sense of his words and his voice. 

It was his voice but the lilt of it sounded wrong and his words were strange. 

What the hell did he mean ‘He should start being an Amber man?’ 

“Keep it in your pants will you. You have a boyfriend, Mark!” Said Eve with a roll of her eyes. 

“What!” She yelped, chorusing with a shocked William. 

Mark had a boyfriend??? Had he moved on? Had he been cheating on her? With a guy? 

“Correction, had a boyfriend.” Replied Mark nonchalantly. 

What the hell was going on? 

“Omg! You guys broke up again? I wasn’t even gone that long Mark.” Scoffed Eve folding her arms. 

“Isn’t this your sixth break up now?” Asked the assistant Rudy staring at him incredulously. 

“No!” Mark replied defensively “It’s the fifth one, the last one didn’t count.” He muttered more quietly. 

“Honestly Mark. This on and off again relationship with Rex is so unhealthy at this point.” Stated Dr Connors shaking her head. 

“Thank you!” Cried Eve! 

“I’m sorry but what is going on?” Shrieked Amber. 

Mark looked at her wide eyed for a second and then chuckled nervously, turning to Eve. 

“Did you miss a vital piece of information Eve?” He asked almost smug. 

“Not exactly... we had a thing. I didn’t get round to explaining it fully.” Replied Eve defensive. 

“Explaining what?” Asked Amber turning to her with a huff. 

“Well Amber, me, Mark, Ruby and Rudy here aren’t from your dimension. William is the only one here from your personal dimension as to why you were brought here, and I would’ve told you that but obviously we had to pause our debrief.” Eve answered apprehensively at the look Amber was giving her. 

Amber felt like an idiot. 

The thoughts that had been niggling at her brain earlier came rushing back to her. Of course, Eve hadn’t just randomly cut her hair and dyed it.  

Of course, she hadn’t left their dimension when she had seen long ginger haired Atom Eve helping civilians in Chicago with the Guardians. 

She had literally been told she was in an alternate universe. Why hadn’t she connected the dots that she had been talking to an alternate Eve this entire time? 

Then it clicked. Eve’s school answer! 

She had answered it like she was her Eve, so Amber had just assumed she was like a massive idiot and proceeded to do the same with this.... other Mark. 

She faced him and could now clearly see he wasn’t her Mark though it was uncanny because it was him and it wasn’t. 

That's why his kiss felt wrong. Why he looked wrong.  

He was a different Mark entirely. 

Amber felt herself flush. 

She had just kissed him. Shit!  

Did that count as cheating? It couldn’t if you were broken up and didn’t know. At least she hoped it didn’t. 

“Oh my god! I am... so sorry... I didn’t...” She started but other Mark stopped her. 

“That’s ok! Like I said, it was one hell of greeting. I am not complaining. Your Mark must be a lucky man.” He replied and despite herself, Amber blushed furiously and then grimaced because the last thing she had said to her Mark was that she wanted to be alone. 

Mark! 

So, he was back home then? And she was back to being in the dark on whether he was alive or not. 

“I’m sorry. I know this isn’t really important but... YOU’RE GAY?” Shrieked William, startling Amber completely. 

Oh right! Ex boyfriend. 

Mark smiled at them. 

“I mean it’s been a while since I had anything intimate with a girl...beside that lovely kiss just then.” He winked at her, and she felt a flutter in her chest but admonished herself immediately. 

This wasn’t her Mark. 

He continued. 

“But I would more class myself as a dabbler than fully team sword. The others here might tell you different seeming as they wanna just be airing out my business !” He said glaring at the other occupants in the room. 

A bisexual Mark Grayson.  

That was... an interesting thought! 

“Not our fault you’re in a toxic on and off again relationship.” Replied to Eve off handedly. 

“You’re one talk Eve! How many times did you take back your Rex after he cheated on you multiple times? You even let it affect your powers. Twice!” Other Mark spat. 

“That’s different! I learnt some self-respect, let go of my toxic ex and got my powers back in working order. You two on the other hand love playing so much mind games with each other until one of you comes crawling back to the other. You guys aren't even cheating on each other and you’re still worse than Rex 32 and he’s literally an addicted serial cheater on an intergalactic level I might add.” Hissed Eve. 

Amber watched other Mark’s face twist in disbelief. 

“What? You gonna tell me that I’m wrong?” Asked Eve smugly. 

His eyes narrowed. 

“I’m not even gonna dignify that with a response Wilkins.” He uttered with pure irritation. 

“Good because I’m pretty sure our guests here don’t need to hear you both squabble over your relationship problems.” Remarked Dr Connors looking at them both sternly. 

Both Eve and Mark looked embarrassed at that. 

“Right! Professionalism. Sorry.” Murmured Eve. 

“Yeah sorry.” Added Mark rubbing the back of his neck. 

Amber felt her head spinning but before she could say anything William spoke up. 

“I’m sorry, Powers? You have powers too Eve? Wait... are you like Mark?”  

Amber jolted at his question. 

William knew Mark had powers? Did their Mark tell him? Or did this other one tell him? Did this other one even have powers? 

Amber looked at the other Mark and analysed him. 

Same muscle mass by the looks of it and if he was here in this dimension and from another one then he probably did have the same powers as Mark. 

Eve looked at WIlliam a little surprised. Something ran through her eyes though Amber didn’t know what. 

“I do have powers Wiliam though I’m not like Mark. I can manipulate matter thus I use those powers to save lives as Atom Eve!” She said and then pink light suddenly encased her clothing, and she was in a mostly dark pink suit, with pink boots and a pink mask around her eyes that their Atom Eve didn’t have but the shorts, gloves and cape were black. 

She looked extremely different from their Atom Eve now. 

“Woah!” breathed William, his voice full of awe and shock. 

Eve smiled and with a snap of her fingers was in her normal clothes again. 

That was still so shocking for Amber to witness. 

Amber wondered what it would be like to manipulate matter at the bend of your will. The possibilities could be endless. The amount of people that could be helped on the small-scale spectrum to the epic scale spectrum was insane to think about. 

Which made her ponder once again what she was needed for as a powerless human being? Was William here for the same purpose? 

If he was, what could they truly help with? 

“Ok! So, What now?” Asked Amber, tired of the same questions running through her mind. 

She wanted answers. 

“Now it’s time for you to meet the emperor.” Answered Dr Connors. 

The emperor! 

The one who ran this operation. The one who would tell them the full extent of what was going on. How they could help save the Multiverse. Amber wanted to know that more than anything and yet now the prospect seemed terrifying. 

An emperor wasn’t just some guy. An emperor was an all-powerful ruler. 

How did you go about meeting an emperor?  

“You guys don’t have to look so terrified.” Said Other Mark with a small chuckle and continued “He’s a cool guy.”  

A cool guy.  

Interesting phrasing. 

“Well forgive me for being a little concerned Mark! Call it post kidnapping jitters. Not to mention if my history was any good a lot of the emperors we learnt about in school were conquerors.” Scoffed William. 

Other Mark grimaced at that but there was something else there too. Something deeper hidden in the eyes. 

“Yeah well, our emperor is far from a conqueror. He’s very anti conqueror actually and you’ll like him. Though Mark could be a little more in tuned to how you’re both feeling!” Said Eve glaring daggers at other Mark and continued “He is in fact a cool guy.”  

Neither Amber nor William had anything to say to that. 

“You can garner your own opinions on him once you meet him. Follow me.” Stated Dr Connors and she headed for the door.  

Amber marvelled at how assured she was that they’d follow. Then again what options did her and William have? There was two superpowered beings in the room with them. They could force them at any given moment.  

Still even with that thought Amber turned to William.  

Whether it was out of fear, support or confirmation she wasn’t sure.  

He looked back at her with an array of emotions crossing his face before taking a deep sigh and holding out his hand to her.  

She took it after a moment of hesitation.  

He was from home. The idea of home was comforting in this strange universe, and she needed that comfort right now.  

The pair of them followed after Dr Connors and Rudy the assistant with other Eve and other Mark beside them.  

The walk was silent as they walked through the neon square corridors.  

Amber realised William clearly hadn’t stepped outside his own room as he stared at the designed corridors with awe and curiosity. 

It was a wonder to Amber that the others knew where they were going when nearly every corridor, she had walked through looked identical but several minutes into their journey some changes began to occur. Corridors became wider and people started popping up more.   

One corridor saw a group of seven kids come round the corner whilst chasing each other. 

One of them saw their group and screamed Eve’s name and then all seven bounded towards her, circling her with hugs. 

A chorus of excited questions could be heard. 

“When did you get back?  

“Did you bring me anything?  

“Can I have some new shoes?”  

One little girl in particular who was casually floating in the air, snapped her head in Amber and Williams directions and her eyes lit up. 

“Hi Amber, Hi William. You guys look new.” The girl said excitedly and turned to Other Mark. “Mark are they your new boyfriend and girlfriend?” 

The other kids all looked to them. 

Amber heard Eve snort whilst William choked beside her. 

Amber simply arched her brow. 

Other Mark chuckled. 

“You never know Maddy.” He replied with a smirk and Amber and William; both shot him an incredulous look as he continued “Also stop listening into your mothers' private conversations.” He said whilst booping her on the nose. 

“Sorry Mark!” She replied with a sheepish grin. 

“Indeed, and Maddy get down. You know you’re not meant to fly in the corridors.” Said Dr Connors sternly. 

The little girl Maddy bit her lip but did as she was told and planted herself on the ground. 

“Sorry Ruby.” She responded dejectedly. 

“That’s ok Maddy but remember not to make it a habit. Now Kids I know you’re excited to meet William and Amber as well as talk with Eve, but we have duties to fulfil right now. Rudy how about you take them to section 8 and maybe at dinner time you can ask all your questions. Sounds fair?” Asked Dr Connors. 

The children all perked up at that and responded eagerly. 

The kids said goodbye and Rudy ushered the children down a different corridor. 

They all watched them until they were out of sight and then William broke the silence. 

“How did that kid know our names?”  

Amber jolted at the question. She hadn’t even thought about that.  

“You’ll soon find out. Come along.” Replied Dr Connors. 

They started their journey again following more sets of corridors with them notably becoming larger and wider. More and more people were also showing up, watching them with interest. They walked for a few more minutes before turning a corner and finding themselves in a large corridor formed with cream pillars, instead of squares and natural light as it was an outside bridge corridor.  

Guards were posted at each pillar, some human, some not, weapons on their belts. 

Amber felt William's grip on her hand tighten as they sifted up the corridor, to two large cream cathedral style doors. 

They stopped a few meters from the entrance. 

Dr Connors conversed with one of the stationed guards before one knocked and stepped inside. A moment later they were given permission to enter. 

Amber and William shuffled into beautiful large chamber, with the other three staying outside. 

Inside the chamber was radiant and more elegant compared to their rooms. Surprisingly more gladiator than futuristic. 

Amber and William looked around in awe until they were startled by a sudden voice. 

They both swivelled around and gasped at the sight of the being that stood across the room from them. 

“Welcome to my dimension William and Amber. I am emperor Allen.”