Ch: 364-367
364 A Few Things To Handle
"Atlas? Good job with Doc Seismic. We're already disassembling his jetpack technology and reverse engineering it." Cecil said over my earpiece as I flew over the Mediterranean Ocean.
"Let me guess. He destroyed his plans to make sure no one else could steal it?" I asked.
"Got it in one. We're trying to pick his brain for any relevant details; but, you know what some of those mad scientists are like."
I chuckled. "Yeah, it's like pulling teeth from a chicken. Pretty much impossible."
"Unfortunately." Cecil responded. "Anyway, the reason I called is we have reports from Midnight City about someone pretending to be Darkwing and murdering people."
I sighed. "Really? It wasn't bad enough what happened to him and someone decided to ruin his reputation, too?"
"I hear ya, kid." Cecil said. "Head on over there and investigate. I'll stay in contact until you arrive there and will brief you further."
"I'm on my way." I said and flew higher up into the atmosphere as I increased my speed. It was faster to continue flying forward than turning around and flying back towards the United States. It didn't take me long to arrive at Midnight City. "I'm here and holy crap, that's a huge black dome that really stands out on a bright summer's day."
Cecil chuckled. "Yes, back in 2002 a villain named the Midnight Magician did some kind of ritual and cursed the city to stay in perpetual night to enhance his powers. Daytime doesn't exist there anymore, so it's attracted all kinds of beings that like to work in the shadows."
"What, you mean like vampires and werewolves?" I asked and he was silent. "Is that why Darkwing's personality changed and he became so antagonistic?"
"Just between you and me, the man had been constantly on edge for years, never getting a break from fighting crime and powerful creatures. That really wears on a person." Cecil explained.
"Yeah, I can understand that." I said and poked my head inside the event horizon of the curse and it really was nighttime inside. "Wow, it's cold in there, too."
"There's no daily sun to warm up the city streets. The ambient temperature is about on the scale of a chilly winter night constantly."
"Damn, that's... why would anyone want to keep living here?" I asked and pulled my head back out.
"People are stubborn." Cecil answered.
"That's it?" I asked with a laugh.
Cecil chuckled. "Yes. Shocking, isn't it?"
"More that it should be." I said and floated inside. "Has anyone tried dispelling the curse?"
"We have people working on it as a side project. It's not a high priority, since it really does function as a good place for all the night-based beings to gather inside." Cecil told me.
"Ah, I get it. You know where they are if they all gather in the same place."
"Bingo." Cecil said. "Look around and see if you can find out what's happening. Tap the earpiece if you find anything or you need my direct attention."
"Paperwork?" I asked, amused.
"Paperwork." Cecil confirmed and clicked off his active microphone.
I made a mental note of several bodies, a few skeletons, a whole lot of creepy people in dark corners, and several gunshots. It was like someone had cut a scene out of a film noir horror show and pasted it into the normal world... which probably described exactly what Midnight Magician's ritual did.
"No! Please! Don't kill me!" A male voice pleaded.
I flew over to a rooftop to see a costumed individual punching the face of a street thug. As the young man fell back from the blow, he landed next to the body of his buddy. He jumped up, clearly afraid to be next, and I darted in and caught the vigilante's fist.
"I think that's enough." I said and the thug didn't acknowledge me as he ran for the fire escape ladder.
"Who're you?" The black man asked and tried to pull his hand back, and couldn't.
"Name's Atlas. I work for the GDA." I said and the man's other fist slammed into my face. I didn't react. "Don't do that again."
"Let me go! The murderer's getting away!" He said and tried to gut-punch me.
I gave him a casual backhanded slap and split both of his lips. "Do you have evidence? Why didn't you arrest him?"
It took a moment before the black man shook his head and he glared at me. "Because he always gets out on bail! Every time!"
"That sounds like a court problem, not a hero problem." I said and let his fist go, flew over to the side of the building, and saw the thug scrambling down the fire escape. He was already halfway to the street, which meant he was used to escaping that way. My Danger Sense went off and I turned in time to be tackled by the costumed individual and we flew over the side of the building.
Before I could stop us, we entered the deep shadow of the next building and all light and sound of the normal world was cut off. He pushed me away and disappeared into the pitch blackness.
"You don't know what you're doing." The male voice said and echoed through the space.
"I'm pretty sure I was stopping you from murdering another criminal." I responded.
"I'm helping people." The voice said.
My Danger Sense warned me and I dodged a fist that disappeared into the darkness.
"I'm saving them from the scum of the earth." The voice continued. "They can never hurt another innocent person ever again."
"Who gave you the authority to make that decision?" I asked.
"Darkwing did. I carry on his work." He said and his face formed out of the darkness and it was well out of a normal person's reach. "I was his assistant, Night Boy."
I glanced down at where his body should be and back to the face. "You're pretty old to be called a boy."
The face frowned at me and disappeared. "This is the Shadowverse." He said from off to the right. "There are dark things in here. Hungry things." His voice said from the left. "Even I won't dare to stay too long in here." He said from above me. "I can't let you interfere, so I hope you like it here." The voice said from all around me. "Because you are never leaving."
My Danger Sense went off and I didn't dodge this time. I caught the fist before it hit my face and held on. There was a loud growling sound from nearby and my Danger Sense increased when several more growls came from the darkness.
"Let me go!" The costumed man exclaimed and punched me in the face again.
I crushed his hand and he screamed, then the growls around us increased and grew closer. "You know, those hungry things really like the sound of your screams." I said and grabbed his other hand and crushed it.
"AHHHH!" He screamed in anguish and my Danger Sense blared at me.
I darted us to the side and a gaping maw full of jagged teeth barely missed us. The funny thing was that it was only a mouth and teeth, nothing else. "You should probably get us out of here."
The man's frantic eyes darted around us and he nodded several times, then he seemed to fade into the shadows and pulled me with him. We transitioned out of that dimension and came out on top of a nearby roof and not in the air in the same spot we entered. I let him go and he dropped to his knees as he stared at his pulped hands like they were snakes about to bite him.
"Nighty night." I said and used Panacea's power to knock him out and then used Overhaul's power to reset his hands back to factory specs. I also took his power to stop him from escaping or causing any more problems.
"Atlas? Are you there?" Cecil asked.
"Yeah, I'm here." I answered.
"We lost the feed on you for a few minutes."
"Oh, that's because I found the culprit." I said and walked over to the roof's edge and saw the thug sprinting down the empty street like his butt was on fire. "Night Boy has been saving people by murdering every two-bit criminal he could get his hands on."
Cecil sighed. "Damn fool kid's lost it. That's not how you're supposed to police crime."
I used a brief shot of Heat Vision and hit the thug's leg, which made him yell in pain and he fell to the ground as he tumbled to a stop, then his hands clutched his leg. "It would be if you were running a totalitarian state."
Cecil chuckled. "Good point. Bring him in and I'll let the shrinks have a go at him. Maybe they can help him recover before he's too far gone."
"I'll be there in fifteen minutes. I just have to call in the murdered thug and the other hurt thug to the local police."
"Carol can handle that for you." Cecil said.
"Really? That's great. Tell her thanks for saving me the trouble." I responded. "I'll be there in ten to fill out an official report."
"She'll be waiting on you." Cecil said and clicked off.
I picked up the unconscious vigilante and tucked him under my arm, then flew off back to the Global Defense Agency.
*
I was relaxing as Mark at home when the telephone rang.
Debbie picked it up and talked for a minute, then handed it to me. "It's Cecil."
I raised my eyebrows at her and accepted the phone. "Hello?"
"I'm sorry for calling you at home, Mark. A situation has come up that requires your participation." Cecil said.
"Wait, my participation? Really?" I asked.
"Yes, I'll give you the details when you show up at the coordinates being sent to your cell phone." Cecil answered and my cell phone beeped.
I checked it and it was on the east coast. "All right, I'll be there as soon as I can."
Debbie took the phone from me and hung it up. "What is it?"
"No idea. It's in Maine, though." I said and stood up.
"Be careful out there." Debbie said and gave me a hug.
"I will." I said went up the stairs and pulled out my old Invincible costume out of the closet and put it on. I went back downstairs and the look on Debbie's face told me all I needed to know about how she really felt about me going out as a hero again. I gave her a hug and held her for a moment, then went out the backdoor.
A notice-me-not hid me as I flew away from the house and I dropped it when I was far enough away. I poured on the speed and arrived at the coordinates. It was a rocky outcropping and Cecil stood there on top of a slightly glowing emblem.
"All right, I'm here." I said and landed beside him on the emblem. The glow intensified and then disappeared. "What's going on?"
"The Queen of Atlantis has decided she's waited long enough to ask for retribution for the death of her husband." Cecil told me and then explained how as Omni-man's son, the responsibility fell to me to fulfill the ancient Atlantian law, because Nolan wasn't there.
"What's the law?" I asked as a floating and then flying sea and space ship came out of the water and hovered in front of us.
"You get to replace the king and become her husband." Cecil said with a straight face.
I looked from him to the ship, back to him, and back to the ship. "You're not kidding."
"They have advanced technology that they could easily use to take over the surface world, if we didn't have an ironclad agreement set in place to stop them." Cecil said and patted my shoulder. "It's your responsibility to protect the people of this planet in any way you can."
I looked back at him. "You are enjoying this way too much."
Cecil smirked at him. "Don't worry, your highness." He said sarcastically. "It's only going to be symbolic and in name only. She's not going to give up ruling her people to a surface dweller."
I sighed. "And if I refuse?"
"They'll invade and cause countless deaths." Cecil answered. "Good luck, Mark."
"Thanks." I said and the ramp dropped down. I walked up it and the ship closed up and flew back down to the water and under the surface. It turned around and flew through the water like it was air. The technology was advanced and it made me wonder why Cecil didn't have a bunch of it being taken apart and reverse engineered.
We soon arrived inside one of the deep trenches under the Atlantic Ocean and arrived at a fairly technologically advanced city. It looked like a futuristic city, only underwater, and we landed inside a large depression near the main castle.
"Put this on." One of them said and handed me a clear air mask to put over my mouth and nose.
I didn't want to be rude and refuse, even if I didn't need it, and I put it on. As soon as his back was turned, I copied it a bunch of times and stored them.
I was led down the ramp and found out that depression was actually a kind of Colosseum with several rock ledges all around it. There were hundreds of fish people cheering and hollering, for some reason, and the ship that brought me here took off. A hush fell over the crowd as a fairly ugly and plump fish woman floated over to the edge of the ledge near the underwater castle.
"Welcome, son of he who slayed my husband." The queen said.
I bowed slightly. "Thank you, your highness. I wish we were meeting under better circumstances."
She looked surprised, as did the other fish people.
"When will we be participating in the ceremony?" I asked.
"As soon as the guards vacate the area." The Queen said.
"Wait, right now?" I asked and she nodded. "Don't we have to... like... get changed or something?"
"Do you wish to change your clothing? Is your uniform not appropriate for this?" One of the guards asked.
"No, no. This is fine." I said not wanting to insult them.
"What about a weapon?" The other guard asked and held out his spear.
"Wh-what? No!" I gasped. "I don't need or want a weapon for this!"
A lot of murmuring came from the crowd and a lot of them nodded with approval.
"If you are ready, then we will begin." The queen said and waved her hand.
"Release the Depth-Dweller!" One of the guards yelled and he and his partner swam away.
"Is that a priest or something?" I asked as the crowd cheered. I heard rustling chains and turned around to see two tall stone posts at the edge of a cliff that must have been hidden behind the ship, because I didn't notice it before. Two very large chains hung from them and they went down over the edge of the cliff and down into the trench.
A cute little creature popped up a moment later and wiggled at me.
"Um... is that the priest?" I asked and glanced around. "Hold on, is there going to be anyone else in the wedding party?"
"Wedding party?" The queen asked and then laughed. "No, we abolished that law years ago after Aquarius ran off to the surface world to play dress-up with the humans."
"Then what's going on?" I asked and turned to look at her.
"This is a trial by combat." The queen said with satisfaction, as if she knew what the outcome was going to be.
A loud roar behind me made me turn back around and I watched as a huge 40 foot tall red scaled creature, that looked like a naga, except it had the head of a dragon and massive muscular arms. It roared again when it saw me, a clear outsider, and it lunged at me.
"Idiot." I said and hauled my fist back, then I zoomed forward and broke the sound barrier as my fist impacted the thing's snout, causing a huge shockwave to spread out and shake the entire Colosseum. The nose was crushed and I kept flying right through the thing's head and smashed out through the back of its skull.
Brains and viscera spewed out in a cloud around me and I flew back to hit the thing in the back, right where the chains had been secured. It shattered the gigantic metal plate and crushed the spine it was secured to. The quite dead giant creature fell forward and landed on the Colosseum floor, blood floating out of the massive hole in the back of it's head.
"So, I won. Is that it?" I asked the completely stunned fish queen. "I can go now?"
The queen nodded her head several times.
"Excellent. It was nice meeting you, your highness." I said and floated up in front of her. "The Global Defense Agency has my number if you ever want to contact me again."
The queen didn't react to my words, so I mentally shrugged and flew up and up through the water.
"Damn, kid. Nice work." Cecil praised me. "That's definitely going to earn us a few concessions at the next peace talks to review the Atlantian Treaty."
I had to chuckle at that. "It also removed a huge bargaining chip from their roster that could attack us later."
"Exactly. I'll be adding a huge bonus to your account for this." Cecil said.
"Nice." I said and flew up out of the water and into the air. "By the way, I grabbed a pile of these air breather thingies for the tech guys to play with."
Cecil chuckled. "I can already hear the guys at NASA cheering."
"Mom's going to be cheering, too. I'm not getting married just out of high school." I joked and he laughed.
365 Paying Levies
Having the entire summer to relax and enjoy myself was the best. As Mark, I could do whatever I wanted with my civilian identity, like spend time with Sarah and her mother, and I worked for the Global Defense Agency as I introduced all the tech for spy gadgets I had created. The lab guys loved all of my ideas and they had a ball playing with it all, as did the GDA agents.
As Atlas, I could patrol when I wanted and I visited certain people when they needed me, like Debbie, Monster Woman in both of her forms, and Atom Eve. It kept them occupied and in a great mood, so none of them were depressed or did anything stupid. Debbie never drank more than two glasses of wine and Atom Eve's confidence rose as Atlas coached her on how and when to use her powers.
I even spent some time inside the Shadowverse and used one of my elemental attacks, Holy Light, to wipe out hundreds of thousands of the darkness creatures. It earned me millions of Karma Points to clear out large swathes of them and I used it as a way to farm Karma and to remove an existential threat to all life, since I was sure the Shadowverse touched upon more than a single dimension. I couldn't earn so much karma, otherwise.
I also worked on the side for the GDA as I kept The Giant busy and he still had a lot of fun as we harvested asteroids and made a fortune. We even chased after a small comet when it flew through the solar system, because the science guys wanted a few core samples. So, we took a break from work and we rode that bitch past Neptune before we had to hop off and let it go on its merry way out into space.
After a few long talks with my mom and Cecil, I decided Mark would stay on with the GDA as a part-time consultant and not go to college. The more relaxed lifestyle I lived during the summer had been the best and I didn't want to give that up. Everything was great and everyone I knew was happy. Why would I ever ask for anything more?
*
I was halfway through my patrol as Atlas when felt several dimensional rifts form back in my hometown of Chicago and my Danger Sense tingled. I sighed at the intrusion upon my perfect life and came to a stop, then stepped from there to an old warehouse. Inside was a huge machine and there were a hundred nearly identical black men coming through the portal and they approached the machine covered in seats.
As the black men strapped themselves into the machine on multiple levels, I saw two large Mauler Twins, one male and one female for some reason, and they were extending a large hose-like thing up towards the portal in the ceiling.
"This doesn't look evil at all." I commented and everyone froze and turned to look at me, even the two twins.
"Who the hell are you?" The female Mauler asked.
"My GDA ID states I'm Atlas." I said, half jokingly, and my X-Ray Vision checked the entire machine over. A few judicial uses of heat vision fried the circuit boards and the microchips needed for the thing to initiate and to transfer energy to that pipe thing. "I have to ask you to cease and desist your currently illegal activities."
The twins gave each other looks, nodded, and jumped down from the top of the machine to where I stood. The two of them slapped their hands together, as if preparing for a fight, and aimed their large fists at me.
"Make us." The male one said and they both grinned evilly.
"Done." I said and blurred as my fist crushed his face and pulped his brain instantly. His head exploded and splashed all over his female twin, who looked horrified.
"Wai-" She tried to say and her head disappeared with another splash of gore as my other fist ended her.
I turned and looked at the bunch of black men that were mostly secured. "Does anyone want to tell me what's going on?"
One of the braver ones on the bottom level unstrapped and walked over to me. "I'm not sure you'll believe it."
I looked down at my costume and tapped a finger on the golden Earth symbol. "Try me."
That was when I learned about the insane plan to copy thousands of memories from dimensional clones into the primary Angstrum Levy, whom had the portal ability. The funny thing was, it was only him that had the power and all the other ones were just normal people that had been saved from their dimension's Invincible.
"Huh, this isn't the main timeline." I said and glanced down at the female Mauler Twin.
"How do you know that?" Angstrum asked me.
"I stripped the intelligence from the Mauler Twins that exist here. Since this is one of the safe universes of the nine you've found, these two must have been sent here to build the machine in their place." I explained.
It did make me wonder how Angstrum managed that without me noticing, since I should have felt any disturbance that crossed into the dimension I was currently existing in, then I realized I had been out of contact with this dimension a bunch of times over the last month while in the Shadowverse and could have missed any number of portals into and out of this dimension.
"So, he saved you from your home dimension?" I asked instead of continuing my thoughts.
"Yes, he pulled me away from being killed by Invincible..." Angstrum said and started to explain about the resistance and how the world had gone to hell when Invincible agreed with his father to conquer the lesser beings.
"He only saved you?" I interrupted him when he started to rant about the injustice.
"Wh-what?" Angstrum asked.
"Just you? He only pulled you out? Not your entire resistance cell? Or Eve? Or even Robot, whom could have helped him build more than a machine to collect thoughts."
Angstrum looked at me as if I had told him the Dodo was no longer extinct.
"You do realize it's been months since he saved you, right? All of your friends could be dead and there's nothing left there to save." I told him and he looked shocked. I turned and looked at all of the other Angstrums that were still in the machine that no longer worked. "All of you are in the same situation. You grasped onto the saving part of his plan and ignored the needing it right now part."
Now they all looked horrified.
"He could have brought everyone with you to another Earth with his power instead of promising to save yours after he saved his own." I continued and they all exchanged worried looks. "It's not your fault for being desperate and forgetting the importance of time after you were saved."
All of them slumped and tears came to their eyes.
I turned back to the Angstrum near me and put a hand on his shoulder. I used his dimensional signature to use my Clairvoyance power and looked into his Earth. All of the normal cities were wrecked and a few futuristic buildings were being built by slave labour. I used his own memories of the members of the resistance and I saw they had been left in a large unmarked grave.
The only one still alive was Atom Eve and she was paralyzed as she was being taken care of by willing slaves. I was surprised they were Will, Amber, Debbie, and Olga. They almost looked happy as they worked and took care of the place they lived with Mark and cared for their hurt friend, even if Eve's thoughts about them were anger and hatred, not that she could ever tell them that.
I waited until her current attendant left to go to the bathroom to pull Eve out of the hospital bed and she appeared at our feet. I cast a cushioning charm on the floor for her, even if she couldn't feel the difference right now.
"EVE!" Angstrum gasped and dropped to his knees.
"She's paralyzed." I said and knelt on one knee and put a gentle hand on Eve's face. "Samantha? It's okay. You're safe and in a different world now, just like your friend here."
Eve's eyes moved to Angstrum and the tears came.
"I-I-I'm sorry, Eve. I didn't realize... I didn't think..." Angstrum muttered and tears appeared in his own eyes.
"The rest of them are gone." I whispered and they both cried.
After a few minutes of letting them grieve, I moved my thumb on her cheek and she sucked in a sharp breath. I didn't say anything as I moved my hand down her neck to her shoulder and her eyes followed my hand. I avoided her chest and slid it down to her belly, then I poked her belly button, the one place she was ticklish.
Eve jerked and giggled as her hands grabbed my hand to stop me, then both she and Angstrum gasped. "I felt that!"
I lifted my hand and she held on, her eyes full of wonder. "You'll need a bit of time to get used to being able to move again."
Eve didn't nod or anything. She just held on to my hand and stared at her working hands. There were a lot of scrambling sounds and I didn't feel my Danger Sense go off, so I ignored it as I used my other hand to pet Eve's red hair that had grown out while she was incapacitated. Eve made a wanton sound and I could hear her thoughts screaming at me to never ever stop letting her feel what that felt like.
A few black hands patted Angstrum's shoulders and I glanced up to see that the machine was now empty of occupants and they had all gathered around us.
"I need a few more minutes to comfort Eve before I can check your dimensions for your friends and family, too." I told them.
"We've waited for months already for the prime to do it, so a few more minutes won't make much difference." A wise one of them said.
"I wonder how long the portal will stay open?" One of them asked as he looked up.
"Until the other machines are ready in the other dimensions." Another said. "We're supposed to connect to the tenth one and then all thousand of our memories will become one inside the prime."
"Your prime is an idiot." I said as Eve lowered my hand and my fingertip poked her belly button and she giggled again and lifted my hand. "Being smart alone can't handle the influx of memories. You have to be prepared for it, or it can mess you up."
"You speak from experience?" The wise Angstrum asked.
"You have no idea." I said with a chuckle as Eve couldn't resist letting my hand drop and I tickled her belly button again to make herself laugh. "I had a bunch of memories slammed in my head several times, usually years of them at a time, and it took me a long time to get used to it and not let them affect my thoughts too much."
All of the Angstrums exchanged worried looks at that qualifier.
"It mostly works; but, depending on the strength of the memories, and the emotions they contain, it definitely changed how I thought and felt about things." I explained and now they looked really worried. "Eve? Can I have my hand back for a few minutes? I have to go save a few hundred universes."
Eve frowned and looked at my face. "Do you promise to come right back to keep helping me?"
I had to smile at that. "I promise to make you feel as much as possible."
Eve needed a second to understand what I meant and she blushed, then she scowled. "I'm not that easy!"
I leaned down and gave her a soft and tender kiss, which made her moan with pleasure. I broke the kiss and gave her my best award winning smile. "What was that?"
Eve's face couldn't get any redder if she tried. "Never mind."
I chuckled and she let my hand go, so I leaned back down and gave her another kiss. "Stay right there and I'll be back before you know it."
Eve nodded and I stood up, gave the Angstrums around us a look, then I flew up into the air and through the portal. For some reason, I came out and flew down into an identical space and there was another huge machine there covered in seats that were full of more Angstrums.
Since there were ten machines total and each held a hundred of them, that meant there were a thousand men from a thousand different dimensions where the prime Angstrum only saved them and none of their friends or family.
"You are a huge asshole, Angstrum." I said loudly and everyone turned to look at me, including the prime Angstrum and another set of Mauler Twins, both male this time.
"Who the hell are you?" One of the Mauler Twins asked.
"Your death." I said and two beams of heat vision sliced through the heads of both twins.
"NO!" Angstrum gasped and reached for them, only for the bodies to be too heavy and they fell to the floor, dead. "Why? WHY?" He yelled and turned to me as I landed beside him.
"Because you're an idiot. You saved your dimensional self across a thousand universes and not once saved any of the people they cared about, like their wives and children." I said and a hundred gasps came from all the other Angstrums. I put a hand on his shoulder and he swatted it away.
"You have no idea what I'm trying to achieve here!" Angstrum shouted.
"You're trying to transcend a mortal mind's capacity by using similar minds to create solutions for all the problems a world has." I said and he looked shocked. "What you're not doing, is actually saving the people. Your only goal is information and that's a fool's errand if you have no clue how to use it to help anyone."
"But I will! That's the point!" Angstrum shouted and waved his hand to do something, only he didn't notice that nothing happened. "Once I have all that knowledge, I'll come up with solutions to everything! Cancer! World hunger! Environmental disasters! I'll solve it all!"
"At the cost of all the lives from a thousand other Earths?" I asked and more gasps came from the Angstrums, whom were freeing themselves from the machine. I did the liberal applications of short heat vision blasts using my X-Ray Vision to disable the machine, just in case.
"No! I'm trying to help them all!" Angstrum argued.
"By helping yours first, right? You'll fix all the wrongs in your own home dimension and then you'll go help the others." I countered.
"Yes! Once my home is a utopia, I can spread out to help everyone else!" Angstrum said, his voice almost manic. He waved his hand again and nothing happened.
"How long is that going to take? A year? Ten years? How long are you going to let everyone else suffer for your own selfishness?" I asked him.
"WHAT? No, no that... that's not..." Angstrum waved his hand again and again. "What's going on? Why can't I bring the other Maulers here?"
"Because you don't have your powers anymore." I said and poked him in the head as I used my Clairvoyance power and stepped him back to his home dimension.
I watched him scream at the devastation he saw in his world and then an old fit woman wearing a grey and white costume smashed her fist through his head and splattered him across the ruined ground. She looked around with anger on her face and didn't see anyone else around, and flew up into the air and rejoined the six other Viltrumites laying waste to everything.
"Huh. He waited too long to enact his plans." I said and the other Angstrums stared at me. "His world was conquered while he was playing librarian."
"Then..." One of them started, paused and swallowed, then continued. "...is it too late for our worlds, too?"
"I don't know." I said and held a hand out for him to shake. "Let's find out."
He clasped my hand without hesitation and his eyes widened as he saw along with me what his world was like. His thoughts went right to his wife and she was in chains as she built a monument to the Viltrumite Empire. I made everyone around her ignore her and pulled her to us.
She gasped when she appeared and was no longer in chains. "ANG?!?"
"Tisha!" He let my hand go and lunged at her to hug her rail thinness.
I reached over and poked her to heal her using Panacea's power. That's when the shouting began and I held up my hands and they all quieted. "Let's gather up all your dimensional brothers first, then we can get to the serious business."
"Agreed." The other 99 Angstrums said and I opened a portal back to my dimension.
I kept Angstrum's power going to hold the portals that existed open and flew into the next one in the air. Again, it was focused downwards, which meant he could keep the orientation of the portal's face no matter where it was, so that made things easier.
I killed the cybernetically enhanced Mauler Twins and then explained what happened to the 100 Angstrums there in the machine. They all agreed instantly, just as the others did, and I opened a portal back to my dimension. I repeat this in the other 8 dimensions and they all agreed, with no one dissenting, and I destroyed the machines and closed the other portals before I stepped back to the warehouse in my dimension.
"You're back." Eve said, her voice full of relief.
"I promised, didn't I?" I said and knelt beside her as I took her hand, which she gripped tightly. "I have more work to do, as you can see by the thousand Angstrums packed in here like sardines."
Eve chuckled and her Angstrum smiled.
I dissolved my boot and stood up. "Go ahead and grab on, so you know I'm right here as I help everyone."
Eve smiled and her hand slid around my ankle and she let out a little sigh.
"Do you want to come along for the mental ride?" I asked and she looked at her Angstrum, whom looked conflicted.
"Will it be bad?" Eve asked.
"The last one I helped only had a wife left, but she's fine now." I pointed at the happily kissing couple. "I won't know who's left until I look."
"We need a lot more space if you start bringing more people here." One of the Angstrums said.
"Right, just a second." I said and pulled out the right materials from my inventory, engraved them with transfiguration, and stepped them into the corners of the room. I then charged them up with magic and the entire warehouse expanded to a hundred times its size. "How's that?"
"It'll do!" Someone shouted from far away and the rest of them spread out to make room and then seemed to organize themselves into an organized line without being asked.
I nodded at that and turned to the closest one. "Let's see who we can rescue from your family and friends first and then we can worry about the rest of your worlds after I gain the right dimensional coordinates to open full portals."
"You're going to save the other slaves back on our world?" Tisha asked, shocked.
"If they want to be." I said, knowing full well that some of them would choose to stay in the forced utopia that the Viltrumites had. Seeing a version of my mother happy being a slave to her husband had been a shock, because it meant she had accepted being his pet and that she never stopped loving him.
The Angstrum near me grasped my hand and my work saving their families and friends began in earnest.
366 A Ruse By Any Other Name
Atlas worked hard to save as many people as possible without drawing attention to what he was doing, because the last thing they needed was for the Viltrumites to figure out someone was subverting their rule by stealing their slaves from right under their noses.
Some of the worlds only had Invincible present, some had him and Omni-man, some had a handsome dark haired Viltrumite that had broken Invincible and he was her toy and did everything she asked him to do.
In another dimension, it was the old fit woman that had that position and enjoyed having a young man like Mark under her. She was too old to have children herself and loaned him out to the other women as a stud, which earned her a lot of prestige under the Viltrumite Empire.
The funny thing was, they all had the same common denominator of Invincible either losing his mind, letting his experiences corrupt him, or just outright agreeing with the Viltrum Empire's philosophy that the strong had to rule and they protected what was theirs. It saved more lives in the end than trying to resist would.
Surprisingly, in almost all of them, Eve was one of the first heroes taken out. She was too close to Invincible in a lot of them and became his most vocal opponent, whom he had to silence or coerce into compliance. Only a handful had fallen for him and went along with him, thanks to how her foster father treated her like a freak and an embarrassment and Mark had accepted her, flaws and all.
Not surprisingly, most of the worlds that the prime Angstrum had saved his dimensional selves from, were all the worst cases and the most bleak, since he wanted them all desperate for any help and they leapt at it with both hands and forgot about everything else. He really was an idiot to do that, because none of them had the knowledge he thought he would gain.
They weren't scientists, or doctors, or even particularly smart in some cases. Most of them were just regular people and had normal lives. They didn't have any special knowledge or even had access to anything close to research materials, just like the average citizen. Not just anyone could walk into secured facilities or laboratories and copy their work.
As Atlas worked, he intentionally didn't have his Mark persona try to show up to help. None of the people there would be at all welcoming to have him near them, especially the six Eves that Atlas had managed to rescue from various states of capture.
Why would Invincible bother doing that? Did he think she would eventually come around to his way of thinking? That was never going to happen after he had kidnapped her and kept her prisoner, in some cases ensuring she was somehow crippled and couldn't use her powers. The one laying on the floor by Atlas, with her hand on his ankle, had stayed right there and kept watching as he searched and saved whoever he could.
"Sir?" One of the nearby Anstrums asked as he held his young daughter in his arms. "It's been hours since you started saving us and a few of us are getting hungry."
"Some of us haven't eaten in days." The next one added.
"And we're tired." Another said and hugged his wife.
Atlas looked at the few hundred Angstrums left in the line that were waiting for him to help them and he felt Eve squeeze his ankle. He looked down at her and she motioned slightly with her other hand towards the five Eves that had sat around her and they were softly whispering about what they were going to do.
"Do you think I could ask them to help?" Atlas asked her.
Eve nodded. "You just have to promise to help them with their worlds if you can."
"You didn't tell them I was going to?" Atlas asked, surprised.
"They didn't believe me because I'm biased." Eve said with a blush.
Atlas nodded and carefully turned away from the line of Anstrums and only pivoted his foot that Eve still had a hold of. "Sam? Evie? Angel? Wilkins? SP-One?"
All five Eves stop talking and turned to look at him. Funnily enough, none of them looked at him with anger or animosity, despite how they had been treated before he rescued them. One had her arms cut off, another her legs, one had all four limbs removed, another had been blinded and her tongue removed, and the last had been bound, blindfolded, and kept in isolation.
"I still have more work to do to find the rest of the dimensional coordinates. Could I bother you to make some furniture, like beds, chairs and tables, then convert some basic foodstuffs into edible meals for everyone?" Atlas asked and dropped a pile of MREs beside them. "I can give you as many of these as you need."
The five Eves exchanged looks and seemed to have a silent conversation, then they nodded as one and stood up. They walked around the Eve on the floor and each of them gave Atlas a kiss on the cheek as they passed by him and one of them levitated the pile of MREs using their powers. He dropped more piles for each of them and they moved over to the side of the warehouse to start working.
Tables were made first and the MREs were quickly converted into much more food than the small containers themselves could have ever held. The Angstrums and their families swarmed the tables and a lot of them thanked them, which they refused and pointed to Atlas, because they were doing it for him.
"You better do me first like you promised." The Eve on the floor said, almost with a growl.
Atlas smiled down at her before he whispered. "You don't see anyone else willingly helping me search for survivors, do you?"
Eve gave me a pointed look, because she knew if he asked them, then they would. She had, didn't she?
"We'll have time to get to know each other soon enough, Samantha." Atlas said and turned back to the line to hold a hand out to the next Angstrum. "Believe me, you won't regret it."
"I won't." Eve said and caught her breath as another world devastated by Invincible appeared in her mind's eye. Why are there so many of them that he ruined?
Because it was all the prime Angstrum focused on. He wanted desperate versions of himself, not nice and stable ones that weren't in danger. Why would an Angstrum from a safe world jump at the chance to have a helping hand save his family? Atlas asked her.
He wouldn't. Angstrum answered and his thoughts led them to his wife and two daughters. They were hiding in an underground bunker that was their neighbour's fallout shelter. The neighbours were there as well and looked scared and a little hungry. Please, help them, too.
Atlas didn't have to be asked and pulled Angstrum's wife out first. She gasped at seeing her husband alive, because she thought he was dead, and hugged him. The two daughters were next and the mother pulled them into the hug. The man and woman were panicking and he pulled them and their two sons at the same time to shock them into not panicking anymore.
"There's food being set out over there." Angstrum said and let my hand go. "Thank you, Atlas."
Atlas shook his head. "There's way too much to do to thank me for it this soon."
Angstrum led his family and friends over to the side of the warehouse and the next Angstrum eagerly grabbed Atlas by the hand. His wife and son were in a homeless shelter with dozens of other families. They were plucked out without a fuss and the family reunion repeated again, then the next Angstrum stepped forward.
*
Mark worked at the Global Defense Agency for his afternoon shift and he was almost completely ignored by the women that were interested in Atlas. It was an odd dichotomy for him, because he was the same person and they adored him as Atlas and ignored him as Mark. It brought home just how different he was in his normal persona than he was in his hero persona, which was the whole point of having a separate identity, so he couldn't complain about it.
He went home to have supper and he and Debbie had a great evening watching television and talked about their day at work. It was kind of funny that they could do that, considering he was barely out of high school and she had been working for years. It just clicked between them and that was all that mattered.
Mark went upstairs to change for bed and climbed under the blanket. He checked his cell phone and saw a text from Sarah. He chuckled at her complaining that college was boring when he wasn't there and she really needed him to get her off. He typed up an apology and that he would see her on the weekend if she was free. Unfortunately, she wasn't and she apologized as well.
They both knew it would be difficult to continue their relationship once she went off to college, so it wasn't that disappointing that it wasn't working out. That was just how life worked out sometimes. Mark signed off with her and sent a text to Sarah's mother, Olivia. He had to laugh that she was busy as well and she apologized and deeply regretted having to say no. She really needed him to get her off, too.
Mark felt it when something crossed the ward boundary. They didn't instantly die, so they weren't hostile towards him or his mother. That didn't mean they weren't a threat to him, though. He didn't move and kept his eye on his bedroom window as his Danger Sense didn't even twitch.
A soft glow appeared and a dog's face appeared in the window. It was a Scottish Terrier, with a kind of beard shape to the fur on his face, and he floated up into view using a jetpack and wasn't flying on his own.
Mark's eyes went to the Science Dog poster on his wall, that showed a similar view with a muscular Dog-man wearing the same tight red t-shirt, military cargo pants, and grenades and equipment on his belt. He sighed and climbed out of bed and walked over to the window, opened it, and waved the being inside.
"Mark Grayson." The Scottie-man said in a deep voice as he floated inside and landed to face him. "My name is Science Dog and I need your help."
Mark crossed his arms and looked at the poster on the wall and back at him.
"I know this might seem strange; but, there are a multitude of dimensions out there where both dogs and science are as real as the air you breathe." Science Dog said, as if imparting a very important secret.
Mark was tempted to tell him about what his other self was doing at that moment and decided not to. He would try the same trick, though. He uncrossed his arms and stepped towards him with a smile on his face and his hand held out to be shaken. "It's nice to meet you, Science Dog."
The being smiled and it looked really weird on a dog's face. He shook the offered hand and Mark hid his surprise at finding out the thing was really a humanoid Praying Mantis that had a shapeshifting ability. He also had the same energy signature as everything else in this dimension, so he was both a liar and a fake.
"Likewise, Mark Grayson." Science Dog said. "During my travels, I came across a planet several galaxies away and they are in desperate need for someone to save them from an impending meteor shower that will devastate the planet."
Mark nodded and let his gloved paw-like hand go. "Several galaxies over, huh? That means you have advanced teleporter technology or a spaceship nearby."
"The latter. It's hovering above the city and waiting for us to depart on our mission." Science Dog responded. "Shall we go right now?"
"Sure, just let me change." Mark said and equipped his Invincible suit. "Let's go."
Science Dog smiled again, which still looked weird, and he activated his jetpack and flew out of the window. Mark took out his cell phone and sent a text to Cecil to warn him, then stored it and flew out through the open window, closed it, and flew up into the air to follow the fake dimensional traveller.
They arrived at a fairly advanced space ship, one even better than the one the Atlantians had, especially if it could traverse galaxies in a short time.
"How long will it take to get there?" Mark asked and pretended to strap in as the creature sat in the pilot seat.
"About 6 of your Earth days." Science Dog responded.
"That's good to know." Mark said and lunged forward and tapped the back of the creature's neck to disable the thing's nervous system.
He pushed him out of the seat and tied up his arms and legs, then sat down in the pilot's seat. It had taken a few minutes to familiarize himself with the layout and operation using the dog-man's mind, which had been helped along as Science Dog set up the piloting coordinates for the return route to wherever they were going.
Mark took out his cell phone and sent another text. He waited and received one back with the location to fly the ship to. It was at the GDA and he nodded. The tech guys were going to have a ball with an actual hyperspace capable spaceship that they might be able to reverse engineer, or at minimum, give them ideas on how to reproduce it for themselves.
After casting a few spells to hide it, Mark flew the thing to where it needed to go and put a copy of it into his inventory, just in case. He landed in the hangar in front of Cecil and a large group of very excited scientists, including the two Sinclairs and Justines, and dropped the ramp.
The ship was immediately swarmed inside and out and Mark was patted on the back several times and even received a kiss on the cheek from one of the Justines. The other scientists applauded and she huffed at them for making a big deal out of it.
"Good work, Mark." Cecil said and motioned towards the unconscious dog-man.
Mark picked him up and followed Cecil out of the ship. "He said the ship can cross a couple of galaxies in about 6 days. The coordinates for where he wanted to take me are on the main screen."
"We can't read it." Sinclair said and his other self outside ran over to Mark. "How did you read an alien language?"
"It's in another language?" Mark asked, pretending to be confused. He was not going to tell them he could read and understand every language that existed. They would have him translating everything from ancient texts to the Italian label of ingredients on the boxes of their favorite cookies.
"Sir, we need to requisition Mister Grayson's services exclusively after the alien's interrogation." Sinclair said.
"I concur!" Justine confirmed from inside the ship. "Everything's marked with names in here."
Cecil nodded and Sinclair walked back to the ship to continue examining it. "You're in demand a lot around here." He commented to Mark, whom shrugged. "We'll go to interrogation room B. It's big enough to contain him if he changes into a giant spider or something."
Mark chuckled. "He's currently paralyzed from the neck down, so even if he wanted to change back, he can't."
Cecil smiled and brought him to the right room. There were a couple of other agents there and they handled the rougher parts of the questioning, once they woke the creature up. It was a surprise to find out that Nolan Grayson, aka Omni-man, had flown so far away since he had left Earth almost 6 months ago.
He had stumbled across the Thraxian people by accident, then took over their planet at their request, and he had been their Emperor ever since. Why did that matter? Because he had sent the Praying Mantis scout specifically to retrieve Mark Grayson, his son, to save them and the planet from the Viltrumites that would eventually track Nolan down.
"Well, that's a huge pile of shit to drop on your shoulders." Cecil said and leaned against the table as he looked at Mark. "What are you going to do?"
Mark sighed and rubbed his face. "I think there's only one thing I can do."
Cecil raised his eyebrows at him. "You can't seriously think that accepting his offer is going to work out? For anyone? Especially for you and Debbie?"
"Accept it?" Mark asked with a scoff. "No, Cecil. You got that wrong." He said, his face blank. "I'll be going there to kill him."
367 Prep Work
"Mark, are you sure you want to do that?" Cecil asked.
I stood there for a moment and tried to not act surprised that he wasn't trying to convince me to not do it. "I doubt there's any kind of prison that could handle him for long, not with how adaptable Viltrumites are." I said and he nodded. "Plus, by his own reckoning, he abandoned the task his people assigned to him and the Empire will execute him when they find him."
Cecil gave me a searching look. "You're going to save the bug planet anyway?"
"From him, yes. If he wasn't there, they would never bother looking at their planet." I said with a smile and Cecil nodded again.
"I'll put you down for an extended away mission, with bonuses for the ship and any other technology you can bring back." Cecil said and smiled back. "Do you want to tell Debbie or should I?"
"Ah, shit." I said and rubbed my face. "I don't want to tell her dad's still alive and he's trying to lure me back in to his scheme."
"Heh, good luck trying to lie to her, kid. She's a bloodhound."
I sighed, because he was right. "Can I change my mind? I'm not going, I swear."
Cecil slapped me on the shoulder. "You're a terrible liar."
"Dammit." I groused. "I'll need a few hours to prepare and it'll give the tech people more time to pull some of the space ship apart to see how it ticks."
"I'll let them know after you help them with the translations." Cecil responded.
I walked over to the door and turned back to face him. "Thanks for trusting me with this."
Cecil waved my thanks away. "You've been doing great up until now, kid. Giving you a chance to fix a future problem before it reaches Earth again? I can only pay you so much without bankrupting the government."
I had to chuckle at that. "We make that back every time The Giant and I do a shift out in the asteroid fields."
Cecil smirked and saluted me with his middle finger. I laughed and left the room to go to the hangar again. They really did need my help to tell them the names of everything and I was sure that Justine was going to do up a language primer as she asked me to spell everything out. I might get another cheek kiss out of her too, just because the other scientists had fun teasing her about it.
After working for over an hour and actually earning a cheek kiss for how much I had helped, I left the hangar and quickly found an out of the way spot that wasn't under surveillance, and stepped home to my bedroom. I stored my Invincible costume and equipped a normal set of clothes before going to my mom's room and knocked on the door.
"Mark? What's wrong?" Debbie asked right away.
I held in my sigh, because she knew I wouldn't wake her up if it wasn't important. I opened the door and she sat up, the blanket falling down to reveal she wore a sheer and practically see-through camisole. The slight chill of the air made her nipples harden and I couldn't help it as I glanced down at her breasts.
Debbie blushed at the attention and didn't try to cover herself up. By her thoughts, she knew I found her attractive and she didn't mind me looking. She had been feeling very sexy during the last few months with Atlas giving her regular infusions of his love and a lot more of his attention than Nolan ever did.
"Come in and sit. It must be important if you woke me up this late." Debbie said as she pushed herself back to lean against the headboard, her words confirming my own thoughts about why she was immediately worried.
I walked over to the bed and her eyes dropped to my waist. Her blush didn't lessen when she saw the slight tent pole I had there and her thoughts were full of flattered feelings and need for a certain hero's attention as soon as possible. She didn't mention anything as she patted the bed beside her. I climbed onto the bed and sat where she wanted and leaned back against the headboard.
We sat there for several minutes as I thought about how I was going to tell her, then realized she was a grown woman and wouldn't want me to be wishy-washy about it or to couch it in qualifiers.
"A being that shouldn't exist approached me a short while after I went to bed..." I started and then told her everything that happened, even my talk with Cecil. I left nothing out, not even my thoughts about suspecting it was a ruse the whole time and how surprised I was that it was my dad that was behind it all.
Debbie had been silent as I talked and she stayed that way when I was finished. She looked straight forward as her hands made fists and then relaxed, then they repeated the motion. After another few minutes, she turned to me and her hands reached up to wrap around my neck and she pulled me into a tight hug. Her nipples poked my chest and I didn't say anything as I hugged her back and held on.
"Do you think you can do it?" Debbie asked me in a whisper.
"I know I can." I answered. "I can save their planet from him, too."
"Good." Debbie said and eased her hold on me just enough to lean back and look into my eyes. "Don't back down. Don't let him talk. Don't allow him to convince you."
"I know, mom." I whispered.
"You might have lost last time; but, you drove him off. He's afraid of you now. He's afraid of what he feels when he sees you." Debbie wisely said and I nodded. "Use it against him, Mark. Tell him that you know better... no, show him that you are better than him."
I felt my emotions swirl and rise in answer to her words. "I will, I promise."
Debbie smiled warmly and leaned in and lightly pecked me on the lips. "That's my boy."
We stayed there and looked into each other's eyes for another few moments, then she leaned back against the headboard and pulled me over to let me lay down on her lap.
"When do you leave?" Debbie asked and petted my hair.
"A few hours. The techs are going over the ship as much as they can." I answered.
Debbie hummed happily at having so much time to spend with me and kept petting me. We were both taking comfort from the simple activity and neither of us wanted her to stop until I had to leave.
*
Atlas finally finished getting the last dimensional coordinates for each of the thousand Earths that the Angstrums came from. He had also filled up the warehouse with living areas and beds with the help of five Eves. The one on the floor had stayed by his side and didn't falter once as she helped search through each dimension for the counterparts of the resistance members she used to know.
In fact, she seemed to gain more confidence as the search came to an end and she managed to move her legs on her own and sat up with the help of her dimension's Angstrum. He had a huge smile on his face, as did most of the other Angstrums, because there had been so many people near their families when they were rescued. The hugely expanded warehouse was barely big enough to house them all.
Atlas sat down beside Eve and she switched her hand from his bare ankle to his hand. "I need a break for a few minutes..."
"Hours. You need sleep after all of that." Eve corrected and Angstrum nodded.
"Samantha..." Atlas started to protest.
"Like a few of the others said, they've survived for this long. A few more hours won't make much difference." Eve told me. "Besides, I've seen the state of them all, too. Until you make another space to fit them in, there's no room left for anyone else."
Atlas glanced around and had to agree. The place was packed and none of the rescued people seemed disturbed to have so many copies of themselves or seeing so many Angstrums. The bad part of all of that was the other local heroes had either been killed or joined up with the Viltrumites. It would take some investigation in each dimension to search the other cities for possible resistance members.
The other Eves came over to us when no one else appeared for them to settle and sat around Atlas and Eve, gave each other a look, then a walled divider formed around us to give us privacy. A door appeared in one of the walls and Eve and I were lifted up as a bed formed under us.
"Angstrum, we need some privacy." The Eve that held my hand said.
Angstrum nodded and stood. "You've been doing good work and deserve a break."
"There's a bunk bed just outside if you want to stay nearby." Sam said.
Angstrum shook his head. "I have a few people I'd like to visit with before I can let myself sleep."
Atlas held up a hand and gained the man's attention. "If you want, I can spend an hour in the morning looking at the closest dimensions for a Tisha that lost her Angstrum from natural causes."
Angstrum looked surprised for a moment and then chuckled. "Of course you can do that."
"It takes longer because I don't have proper coordinates or an energy signature to follow." Atlas said. "I'll also be looking for a dimension you can all move to and can live your lives without anyone questioning why there are so many copies of you."
Angstrum gave him a huge smile. "I'll pass that happy new around."
Atlas and the Eves waved as he left and he shut the door. It disappeared and all six Eves gave Atlas a look full of desire and unrequited need.
"Samantha is first." Atlas said and pulled Eve onto his lap. She gasped and moaned as he kissed her and his hands roamed over her back, arms, and legs. He caressed her all over and she dissolved her clothing into atoms as his fingers searched her down there, then they were inside of her and she cried out with pleasure and came hard.
The other five Eves exchanged looks again, then their clothes dissolved and their hands caressed and rubbed Eve all over, giving her more physical stimulation than she ever had, even before she had been paralyzed for months.
Eve moaned and cried as Atlas mounted her for the first time and she felt herself start to fall in love with him. He had saved her and he was treating her exactly like she wanted him to, then two of her counterparts locked their lips onto her hard nipples and another kissed her tenderly on the lips.
When she opened her eyes to see which one it was, she saw Atlas kissing another her and his hands were playing with her and the one kissing her.
"We've chosen well." The last Eve named SP-One said and her head dropped down out of sight.
Eve gasped as she felt a tongue probe where Atlas was giving her the best pleasure. Atlas gasped next and he slowed down his movements to give her a chance to feel everything as much as she could. She felt her love grow in proportion to the care he gave her and she had to include her other selves. They were helping and then Atlas stiffened and she felt a deep warmth fill her up. Her eyes rolled up into the back of her head and she passed out from pleasure overload.
Atlas pulled out of her and he and the other Eves stopped what they were doing and smiled down at the beautiful smile on Samantha's face. They had given her the best time they could after her paralysis and they knew she would remember how it felt for a very long time.
"Mmm." SP-One moaned and slipped her mouth over Atlas. He was still rock hard and he started thrusting again.
Sam moved Samantha aside and formed a protective barrier around her, then she and the others started working Atlas over. They had put off their own needs long enough and it was time for them to enjoy themselves with the man that had saved them and healed them.
Atlas didn't mind at all.
*
"We put everything back without changing anything." Sinclair said as I approached the spaceship. He handed over a copy of their reports and I flipped through them to see how much they managed to figure out. "We've already mapped out a good portion of the power generator, thanks to those new sensors you helped us design. We have a few hints on how to try replicating it and will work on it while you're gone."
I nodded and tucked the reports into my backpack. "I'll see if I can bring a few dozen of them back with me."
Justine seemed to appear out of nowhere and kissed my cheek.
"What was that for?" I asked as the other scientists applauded and Sinclair chased them off of the ship.
"You like it." Justine said with a knowing look and winked at me. "Good luck." She said and walked off the ship. "Make sure you bring back more fun things for me to play with."
Before I could joke about if she meant me or technology, the loading ramp closed. I chuckled and went to the pilot seat. I ran a diagnostic and a few of the components weren't sitting properly, so a liberal use of technopathy and telekinesis set everything back where it was supposed to be and repaired the connections.
The spaceship powered up and I checked the coordinates. They were the same, so I hit the sequence for the launch and to set the autopilot. The next six days would have been boring with nothing to do and I was glad that I had a ton of books in my inventory to read and relax with. It was just too bad my reading buddy couldn't join me.
*
My second stream of consciousness named Atlas woke up at the break of dawn with six very happy Eves cuddled around him. It was a dream come true for many men to be in the middle of a cuddle pile with beautiful women. That they happened to practically be the same woman was just a bonus. Why? Because they were fully accepting of what happened and weren't jealous of the others.
"Mmm." One of the Eves hummed when she felt me grow hard. She adjusted herself and shuddered as she slid herself down onto me, then she started rocking her hips only just enough to move me in and out barely an inch. That was plenty enough for her to enjoy it and it didn't take long before she came and shuddered again.
Without a word, she slid off of me and another Eve moved into place on top of me and gave me a soft kiss and slid me inside of herself. She repeated the first's movements, barely any at all, and she soon came and needed a moment to recover. When she did, she moved off and another Eve took her place.
They were all starting to fully wake up by this point and we were soon having another orgy with mouths, tongues, and hands everywhere. The best part about it was that they knew the quickest ways to get each other off, since they were practically the same woman, and they were all very happy about it.
The last Eve was Samantha and she gave me a very tender and love-filled kiss as she rode me to completion. I filled her up and she moaned with fulfilled desire, her mind and heart focused solely on how I had kept my promise and how good I had made her feel.
We stayed there and cuddled for quite some time before one of the Eves mentioned having to get up to serve breakfast to the early risers. That gave the rest of us the motivation to get up as well, then we realized there were no showers in the bathroom stalls and no one could clean up, ourselves included.
"More work, some more work, and then we can play again." I promised and they gave me warm smiles.
Eve formed a door in the wall and left the dividers up. It had become our spot and no one but us would be allowed inside. I would add a few things, not to mention expanding it a little and maybe adding an upstairs. We would need a living area and our own showers and bathrooms, too.
I dropped a couple thousand MREs for the Eves to work with to make breakfast for everyone and I went to the bathrooms and expanded them to add in shower stalls and transfigured large heated overhead water containers, just like I had made way back in The Walking Dead universe. With the recycling and filtering system it had, it would never have to be refilled or cleaned.
It didn't have to last long anyway. I just had to find an empty world or one where a natural disaster had removed the local population. Having existing structures would make things a lot easier, rather than having to build everything up from scratch. I would if I had to, though.
There was no way they could stay here for a lengthy period of time and I definitely needed a lot more room to house them when I went back to each of those dimensions and saved more people.